Michael Jackson's doctor on today pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the sudden death of the pop star last year from a lethal cocktail of drugs. Dr. Conrad Murray, who has offices in Houston and Las Vegas, entered a Los Angeles courthouse to chants of "murderer" from Jackson fans gathered outside. Inside the courtroom, he faced members of the singer's family.
Dressed in a gray suit and red tie, Murray stood upright and spoke in a soft voice when addressing the judge. Murray has been the focus of a police probe for months since the Los Angeles coroner's office ruled that Jackson's June 25 death was a homicide, due partly to the powerful anaesthetic propofol, which Murray admitted giving the 50-year-old singer to help him sleep.
The coroner's report said Jackson's death was caused by propofol and the sedative lorazepam. Painkillers, sedatives and a stimulant also were found in his body. Authorities found bottles of propofol in Murray's doctor's bag and on the bedside table of Jackson's home, according to court records unsealed last year. They also searched Murray's offices in Las Vegas and Houston.
Prosecutors said Murray "did unlawfully, and without malice, kill Michael Joseph Jackson," according to a statement from the Los Angeles District Attorney's office.
Murray faces up to four years in prison if convicted, a sentence that some of Jackson's followers believe is relatively light given that his actions may have led to the singer's death. Murray has insisted he did nothing wrong and has told investigators he was not the first doctor to give Jackson propofol, according to court records.
Murray, a cardiologist, was hired in May 2009 to care for Jackson while he prepared for a series of 50 comeback concerts in London aimed at reviving a career sidelined by his 2005 trial and acquittal on charges of molesting a 13-year-old boy. The singer, dubbed the King of Pop, was a member of the legendary Motown singing group the Jackson 5 and was a hugely successful solo artist as an adult. His 1982 album Thriller is still the world's best-selling album.
Jackson's sudden cardiac arrest on the morning of June 25, which prompted a worldwide outpouring of grief, followed a late night rehearsal in Los Angeles for the planned concerts that were to have been called This Is It.
A documentary film, Michael Jackson's This Is It, made from video footage of the concert rehearsals, took in nearly $260 million at worldwide box offices.
When Jackson died, he left an estate worth hundreds of millions of dollars that went into trusts benefiting his mother, three children and various charities.
Jackson's family is said to be furious that Los Angeles police and prosecutors took months to file a criminal charge. His brother Jermaine Jackson, sister La Toya, mother Katherine and father Joe were in the courtroom on Monday.
What do you do when you're a business owner that deals with a supposedly-obnoxious customer? Well, you use the law to ban them for life, if you can.
A man has been banned for life from two Tim Hortons outlets for complaining one too many times about burned coffee. According to the CBC, Jimmy Craig from St. Andrews, New Brunswick lodged three complaints about burned decaffeinated coffee at the popular restaurant chain.
"It was like brown, burned water," Craig told the CBC. "I almost, you know, got sick in the sink."
When Craig met with Edwin Dow, the owner of the St. Andrews franchise, Dow served him with a letter banning him under the province's trespass act. Craig, who is a paramedic, is forbidden from entering the St. Andrews store and another one in nearby St. Stephens unless he's responding to a medical emergency. He has hired a lawyer to have the ban revoked.
"I was baffled," Craig said. "It didn't make any sense at all. All I wanted to do was bring it to his attention that there was a problem with the consistency of his product."
"I don't see this is a way to treat people. Whatever happened to the customer is always right?"
Do you drink a can of soda every day? Maybe it's time to think again. Drinking two or more soft drinks a week may nearly double a person's risk of developing pancreatic cancer, researchers are warning. That is scary, and is definitely going to change my soda-drinking habits.
Cancer of the pancreas is one of the most rapidly fatal tumours in adults; only 6% of people are still alive five years after a diagnosis. The pancreas makes insulin, and scientists believe high concentrations of insulin can drive the growth of pancreatic cancer cells.
Eating too much sugar increases insulin levels in the body, and one of the leading sources of added sugar in our diets are soft drinks. The new study, by researchers from the University of Minnesota, was based on more than 60,000 men and women in the Singapore Chinese Health Study who were followed for 14 years. During that time, 140 people developed invasive pancreatic cancer. At the start of the study, as part of a food frequency questionnaire, people were asked to report how often they drank one glass of pop. A glass was considered 237 millilitres, or about the equivalent of one cup.
Those who reported drinking two or more soft drinks per week had an 87% increased risk of pancreatic cancer compared to those who didn't drink soft drinks. The pop drinkers were averaging five drinks per week. The finding held after researchers took smoking, obesity, diabetes, red meat intake, coffee consumption and a "whole myriad" of other nutritional factors into account, said lead author Noel Mueller, now a research associate at the Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington.
There was no significant association between juice consumption and risk of pancreatic cancer. Other studies have looked at the association between pop and pancreatic cancer, but the results haven't been consistent. One of the strengths of the new study is its size.
However, there were only 140 cases of pancreatic cancer, so the finding was based on a relatively small number of cases. Mueller also said caution needs to be taken when extrapolating the findings from the Singapore Chinese study to a western population. But other studies in American and European populations have found similar associations.
A study of 88,794 U.S. nurses and 49,364 male health professionals found that women who consumed three or more sugar-sweetened drinks a week had a 57% greater risk of pancreatic cancer than did women who drank no more than one soft drink per month. In that study, there was no association between sweetened soft drinks and pancreatic cancer among men. But a Swedish study involving nearly 78,000 women and men reported in 2006 that high consumption of sugar and high-sugar foods -- including soft drinks -- was associated with a greater risk of pancreatic cancer in both sexes.
An estimated 3,900 Canadians were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year. Known risk factors include smoking, diabetes and obesity, said Gillian Bromfield, senior manager of cancer control policy at the Canadian Cancer Society.
The new study is published this week in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
Toyota will establish a global quality task force and implement other procedures to ensure customer safety and satisfaction, its president said at a press conference. Akio Toyoda expressed deep regret for the inconvenience and concern to customers, and announced that he will personally take the lead toward improving quality worldwide.
Once established, the global quality task force will conduct quality improvement activities region by region, using a six-point action plan:
1. Improve the quality inspection process by inspecting every process and verifying causes that led to the recalls, including quality in design, production, sales and service. 2. Enhance the customer information research offices in each region to collect information faster. 3. Establish an automotive centre of quality excellence in key regions to further develop quality management professionals. 4. Seek confirmation and evaluation from outside experts, in line with the industry's best practices, of its newly-improved quality control management, based on the above improvements. 5. Increased frequency of communication with regional authorities. 6. Improvement of the autonomy of its regional subsidiaries, listening to each and every customer to improve quality.
Toyota Canada says that it has resumed sales and deliveries of the eight models of vehicle affected by a massive international recall. The company says that owners of affected vehicles can begin contacting their local dealership to get the defective pedal repaired.
Toronto dealership manager Dan Golightly says his service centre began repairing vehicles yesterday, and will have extended hours until the repairs are done. Millions of Toyotas, including 270,000 vehicles in Canada, were recalled due to a faulty accelerator pedal in several models, including the popular Camry, Corolla and RAV4.
To fix the affected vehicles, dealerships will install a steel reinforcement bar to reduce the friction that's been associated with the sticky pedal problem.
The company has also identified brake problems in its popular Prius hybrid but has not yet issued a recall for that vehicle.
Unless you were living in a cave during the last few weeks, you would know that the Super Bowl was on television yesterday, and the Colts lost to the Saints.
Well, something we always enjoy watching are the Super Bowl ads, after the game, because we live in Canada and aren’t allowed to watch the ads that are shown in America.
Well, after some archiving, here is the Simpsons Coca-Cola commercial we got all excited about. Enjoy!
Toyota Motor Corp's president apologized today for safety problems and said the company would bring in outside experts to review quality controls, an unusual action for a company that has enjoyed a reputation for high standards.
"I would like to take this opportunity to apologize from the bottom of my heart for causing many of our customers concern after the recalls across several models in several regions," Akio Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota's founder, told a news conference in Nagoya, Japan.
Toyoda's comments were his most extensive since the latest recall began in January. Toyota has issued two recalls since last November. The company's shares, which have taken a beating in recent sessions, rose as much as 4.1% to $74.73 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. Since January 21, Toyota has lost $30 billion or a fifth of its market value.
Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's put Toyota and some of its suppliers on watch for a possible downgrade citing "increased concern over the potential negative impact on Toyota's business profile of unfolding developments related to recent quality issues."
Toyota, the world's largest automaker, has recalled more than 8 million vehicles around the world for problems with accelerators. Episodes of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles have been linked to up to 19 crash deaths in the United States over the past decade. Toyota is also mulling a recall of Prius, its top-selling hybrid, for a braking problem.
The company has estimated that lost production, lost sales, parts to fix problems, staff training and repairs to recalled vehicles will cost Toyota $2 billion from January to the end of March. The news conference came after U.S. competitor Ford Motor Co readied a solution for braking problems on two of its hybrid models, the hybrid Fusion and Mercury Milan.
Toyoda apologized for safety problems that have left the Japanese carmaker "in crisis". He said Toyota would strengthen its inspection process, respond faster to customer complaints and seek input from outside experts.
Toyoda also pledged to set up and oversee a quality improvement task force involving external experts monitoring quality management. It was not clear how the global quality management committee would function.
Turning to independent experts is "about as good as you can expect," said UBS analyst Philippe Houchois.
"I've seen a lot of recalls, but I don't remember seeing that step of getting an outside expert. That's quite an innovative or aggressive approach to try to solve the problem," he said.
Toyota Europe's spokeswoman Maria Mack said, "This is not the first time we have consulted with external parties, but this is a more structural approach."
"It is a new idea in the way it is conceived. It is the first time there will be a really formalized approach."
The crisis generated by the recalls and the way the 77-year-old company has handled itself publicly have led to widespread criticism.
Toyoda, 53, bowed in apology after addressing the news conference and answered other questions, some in English, after an official tried to end the late-night session. He asked investors to "continue to support us with a long-term view."
Kazutaka Oshima, president of Rakuten Investment Management, said investors needed answers. "Toyoda is responsible for explaining to shareholders since they have lost a significant part of their assets."
Toyoda became the company's president last year, promising to steer it out of its worst downturn in history and bring greater transparency to its corporate culture.
Safety regulators in the United States and Japan are investigating a braking problem with Toyota's latest version of the Prius, Japan's top-selling car last year and an icon of green design that has lifted the public image of the whole company. Japan's transport minister said he had heard from ministry officials that Toyota would recall or voluntarily fix the automobiles affected, including those shipped overseas.
"Toyota's response came up short from the perspective of its customers," Transport Minister Seiji Maehara said.
Since its launch last May, Toyota has sold more than 300,000 units of the newest version of the Prius worldwide, including around 200,000 in Japan, 103,200 in the United States and 29,000 in Europe. Toyota's and Ford's hybrids capture the energy from braking to recharge an on-board battery to boost mileage from its gasoline engine.
Toyota Prius owners have complained that on bumpy roads and on ice, the regenerative brakes of the vehicle appear to slip and it lurches forward before the traditional brakes engage. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has received 124 complaints from drivers of the third-generation Prius. The agency said that motorists have blamed four crashes on this problem.
Toyota and Ford have said that they have come up with software fixes for the problems. Toyota said on Thursday that it started fixing a problem in the Prius last month.
Ford's roll-out of a software patch to address braking problems on its Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan models came after Consumer Reports magazine reported that one of its test engineers had experienced what appeared to be a loss of braking power with a Fusion hybrid. Ford, the #2 U.S. automaker by sales, said it was aware of one minor accident related to the braking problem, but no injuries.
Ford has said that it notified its dealers in October and sent them a notice, a copy of which was made public by Consumer Reports.
The cops paid Charlie Sheen a visit today. But the twist is, it's not for something that he did.
Charlie Sheen's SUV was discovered by police early Friday, smashed, and upside down... in a ravine, People reported.
"Charlie was not in the car," the Two and a Half Men star's publicist told the magazine. And as police explain to People, they're treating the case as the result of auto theft. Sheen reported his Mercedes Benz SUV stolen shortly before they discovered the vehicle below a cliff near his Sherman Oaks, California home.
Though police are in the process of investigating the crash site, they so far have yet to turn up evidence suggesting anyone was in the car at the time of the crash, Us Weekly reports.
In any case, a smashed SUV is the least of the actor's troubles.
"It was nice to have police come to my house and for once I didn't have to leave with them," Sheen joked in an interview with The Insider.
Although he has committed endless crimes against good taste through his on-going sitcom Two and a Half Men, Charlie Sheen has recently found himself facing charges for an actual misdeed. On Christmas Day, a fight between Sheen and his wife, Brooke Mueller, led to the actor being charged with assault. He's also under a restraining order that keeps him away from his wife, who recently checked in to a rehab centre in North Carolina. Sheen, who's set to attend a hearing in Aspen, Colorado on Monday, and is expected to face felony charges for assault, Aspen's assistant district attorney told Us Weekly. According to their reports, Charlie Sheen allegedly threatened his wife with murder, and held a knife to her throat.
A Winnipeg man at the centre of a preset Virgin Mobile text message fallout is apparently speaking out.
Darren, who is 49, lived with his common-law wife up until earlier this week when she found suggestive factory-installed text messages on his cell phone placed there by Virgin.
Now, Darren apparently has been misplaced from his own home, and has a protective order against him for yelling at his partner trying to explain what had happened.
Well, if this is true, I have a few questions of my own...
First off, why is a 49-year-old buying a phone from Virgin Mobile anyway? I would think that with their retarded advertising, it would appeal only to younger weirdoes.
Troubled Japanese automaker Toyota said today that it had begun repairing sticky accelerator pedals in the United States behind the recall of millions of vehicles worldwide.
The carmaker's U.S. branch, Toyota Motor Sales USA, said that repairs were underway after dealers across the country had received the necessary parts, information and training to repair the accelerator pedals. It also announced that it had begun mailing letters to owners of recalled vehicles to inform them of when they can bring their cars to a dealership for repair.
According to Toyota, mechanics only need 30 minutes per vehicle to complete the repairs. The company had announced on Monday that the simple fix involves installing a precision-cut steel reinforcement bar into the accelerator pedal assembly to eliminate the excess friction that has caused pedals to stick in rare instances.
But the automaker has also faced a litany of complaints about other technical problems, including brake failure and floor mats trapping the accelerator pedals.
"Nothing is more important to us than the safety and reliability of the vehicles our customers drive, and we are determined to live up to the high standards people have come to expect from Toyota over the past 50 years," Toyota USA president and chief executive Jim Lentz said in a statement. "Everyone at Toyota is focused on making this recall simple and trouble-free for our customers."
However, the car's troubles escalated further as Toyota looked set to recall several hundred thousand Prius hybrids and was slapped with a U.S. lawsuit alleging it covered up safety problems. The Nikkei business daily said that Toyota had decided to recall an estimated 270,000 Prius cars in Japan and the United States to fix a brake problem affecting the newest version of the hybrid.
"We're working hard to ensure that our dealers have the resources and support they need to make sure our customers get their cars fixed quickly," Lentz said.
"The parts have been shipped, the dealers are trained, and they are already making the repairs," he added noting that many dealers were working extended hours. Some have even opened around the clock to deal with the impact of the massive recall.
Toyota said it was sending cheques of $7,500-$75,000 to its dealers to help them with any additional costs related to the repairs.
Repairs are expected to begin here in Canada today as well.
The Government of Canada confirmed today that it has struck a deal with the Obama administration that would protect the Canadian industry from Buy American provisions. International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan and Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon made the announcement at a news conference in Ottawa.
"Preserving and creating jobs is the Canadian government's top priority," Van Loan said. "Our government stood up for Canadian businesses and workers in resolving this issue with our U.S. partners."
The catch behind the deal will see Canada agree to provide U.S. suppliers with access to a range of construction contracts across Canada's provinces and territories, as well as in a number of municipalities. In return, the United States has agreed to provide Canadian suppliers with access to state and local public works projects in a range of programs funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Canadian and U.S. officials hope to have a final deal signed by February 16, 2010. The two sides have also agreed to continue negotiations on a broader deal governing procurement. Further, there is a "fast-track" provision that would help resolve disputes should similar Buy American provisions be applied to future legislation. Experts say that the pact marks an "important breakthrough" in stopping the spread of protectionism and acknowledging Canada's importance to the U.S. economy.
The deal will be structured to allow the White House to use executive power to treat sectors of the Canadian economy as American by claiming supply chains are so integrated they cannot be separated. This has been done because U.S. President Barack Obama cannot rely on Congress to pass legislation exempting Canada from Buy American provisions.
"We are very happy," said Veso Sobot, director of corporate affairs at IPEX Inc., which is a Toronto-based pipe manufacturer. IPEX gained notoriety after the introduction of Buy American rules for having its pipe fittings pulled out of the ground in California because they had the 'Made in Canada' designation on them.
"This will allow us to compete again," Sobot said. "We are tickled pink and we are going to be aggressive about trying to compete for business in the United States. And I hope this can help bolster our 2010 and bring back jobs to Canada."
American officials were also touting this agreement as a success.
"(The United States) has won that access for American firms, and I look forward to signing the agreement soon," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement Friday. "For years, U.S. firms have sought market access to Canadian provincial procurement under the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), which Canada resisted."
Taylor Lexus Toyota in Regina is trying to soften the blow for customers who can't take delivery of their newly-purchased Toyota vehicles due to a sales embargo on vehicles recalled to fix defective gas pedals.
Taylor is paying $50 a day to those customers who ordered a new Toyota vehicle but can't take it due to the recall notice, which was issued on January 21 and affects 270,000 vehicles in Canada.
"We currently can sell, but not deliver, the models affected by the recall," said Dale Kane, general manager of Taylor Motors. "So, it's an offer to consumers (who) give us the honour of still buying the affected vehicles. We'll reduce the sale price by $50 for every day we can't deliver it."
Kane said he knows of ten customers who purchased Toyotas in January, but were unable to take possession of their vehicles. They will receive the $50 a day reduction in the sales price once the sales embargo is lifted and the vehicles are available to be picked up, he said.
"It's an inconvenience payment," Kane said. "Anybody that's bought a vehicle, I want to try to acknowledge their patience with a little consideration."
As for the pedal replacement parts, Kane said the "spacer plates" were being sent out Tuesday and should be received today, with the repairs to begin today or Friday.
"We've been informed that we should be looking after those customers with greatest concern or those customers that, on inspection, actually have a problem," Kane said.
Meanwhile, Toyota Motor Corp. was scrambling Wednesday to deal with yet another problem: reported brake failures on the company's best-selling Prius hybrid vehicles, and comments by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood that people should "stop driving" Toyotas. He later clarified the comments.
On Wednesday, Toyota reported dozens of complaints in North America and Japan about brake failure on its popular Prius hybrid. Japan's Transport Ministry said it had received at least 13 complaints about Prius brakes in the two months to January alone. Another Prius driver complained that his brakes failed last July, leading to a collision that slightly injured two people, a ministry official said. In Washington, Lahood stepped up his pressure on the Japanese automaker one day after saying the massive recall came only after pressure from the U.S. government.
Lahood caused a brief panic when he told a congressional panel that owners of millions of defective Toyota vehicles, which erratically accelerate, should "stop driving" them. He later sought to tone down his remarks, telling reporters: "What I meant to say and what I thought I said was if you own one of these cars or if you're in doubt, take it to the dealer and they're going to fix it."
Lahood repeated his agency was studying the possibility of civil penalties on Toyota for safety violations, which could mean fines of millions of dollars, and will "continue to investigate all possible causes of these safety issues."
The Japanese giant, who overtook General Motors in 2008 as the top-selling automaker, has been hit by a series of safety issues that have dented its coveted reputation as a producer of safe and reliable vehicles. The company is recalling almost eight million vehicles worldwide, which is roughly equivalent to its entire 2009 global sales, due to problems with accelerator pedals that could cause the car to speed up unintentionally.
Winter Olympics staff and volunteers working frantically to get one of the primary venues ready for competition got more bad news yesterday: the weather forecast.
Snow-shapers have been transporting in loads of the white stuff by truck and helicopter to Cypress Mountain to compensate for the region's freakishly-warm weather. The latest 14-day outlook continues to call for warmer-than-usual temperatures, meaning that whatever precipitation falls during the day won't be snow.
The staff is currently hoping that cooler overnight temperatures will allow snow to fall, or at least allow them to manufacture enough snow to make up for the dearth of natural snow. A few centimetres fell on the slopes overnight on Monday. The temperature during the day Wednesday was hovering around 0°C.
On January 28, in a security filing, video rental chain Blockbuster Inc. said that the company's director Carl Icahn has announced his intention to resign from the company's board. Is it true? Man, that guy seemed like a real troublemaker. Remember his public conflicts with John Antioco?
Icahn reportedly said in a letter to Blockbuster CEO James Keyes that he was resigning because of Institutional Shareholder Services guidelines regarding the number of directorships a person can hold.
In May of 2005, at the company's Annual Meeting of Stockholders Carl Icahn, Edward Bleier and Strauss Zelnick, a dissident group of nominees up for election to the Blockbuster Board of Directors, won election as Class III directors with terms expiring in 2007. They replaced incumbent Blockbuster Directors Linda Griego, Peter A. Bassi and Chairman John Antioco.
Currently, Icahn is reported to own about 16.9% of Blockbuster's Class A shares and about 7.7% of its Class B shares. Icahn has seen the value of his stake falling drastically over the years. Blockbuster's stock was worth just under $10 when the advocate investor started building his stake and is now trading around 45 cents, reports noted.
On January 20, Blockbuster said it now expects GAAP net loss for 2009 to be in the range of $183 million to $193 million, excluding any impairment of goodwill and other long-lived assets. The company said its expectation for fiscal 2009 results were based on current information related to lower than expected results for the fourth quarter, particularly the 2009 holiday season.
BBI shares increased $0.03 or 6.67% and closed Monday's regular trading at $0.48. After hours, BBI shares declined $0.02 or 4.17% and traded at $0.46. The stock has traded between $0.13 and $1.56 during the past year.
Think that muffin labelled as low-fat won't get to your ass? Well, think again! Muffins billed as low-fat at your favourite coffee shop may not be so free of fat. And that low-fat sandwich or pizza slice on the menu of your fast-food joint may not be as "lean" as advertised.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency found that fat claims were often exaggerated when chain restaurants provided nutrition information to their customers. That's a shame. The agency launched its menu verification program at coffee shops and quick-service restaurants after many of the big chains began to make fat-related claims and to provide nutrition numbers for their standard menu items, usually on their websites or in brochures.
The government tests, drawn from samples from across the country and conducted over the last two years, found only six of 11 baked goods labelled to be either low in fat or trans-fat free lived up to their billing. The tests involved muffins, doughnuts, bagels and cookies. Twenty-eight samples of sandwiches, pizzas, burgers or fries labelled as low in fat or free of trans-fats were tested, and the claim held up in 18 cases. Of the 10 with bogus fat-related claims, the inaccuracies were "in large part" due to saturated fat levels, according to CFIA.
Grace Ramos, chief of compliance in CFIA's labelling and fraud branch, said the results for the fat claims were of concern.
"The purchasing decision of consumers will be based on the signage that they see. That's why we are looking at the way advertisements are being made -- because people buy based on what they perceive as healthy for them, so low fat or reduced fat is something that consumers will look for," Ramos said in an interview.
The good news for consumers is the compliance rate was much higher when the agency checked calorie counts and other nutritional facts, such as the number of grams of fat or sugar in a menu item; variances of up to 20% on declared values are allowed to account for the inherent variability of nutrients in foods and the variability of laboratory methods. Fifteen out of nineteen baked goods tested for nutritional information were compliant.
Meanwhile, the calorie count held up in 13 of 15 samples listing the number of calories in main dishes, such as a burger, pizza slice, submarine sandwich or wrap. Nine out of ten samples tested for sodium levels also were accurate.
"One of our major focus of this project is to make sure that all the declaration in the menus and the nutrition information specifically for these products are accurate and truthful and not misleading," said Ramos.
CFIA refused to provide a list of chain restaurants included in its survey or reveal which items failed to live up to their fat claims. According to minutes of an internal meeting about the project released under Access to Information regulations, in the case of "unsatisfactory lab results," CFIA officials planned to conduct follow-up inspections with companies "to ask for the basis for the nutrition information they provide consumers, what kind of quality assurance procedures are taken to ensure they are within declared values, and if they conduct tests to verify accuracy of the information."
Without providing any specifics, Ramos said, "in most instances, they will correct or remove their signage."
Public-health advocate Bill Jeffrey said it's good to see CFIA is testing claims made by restaurants trying to cash in on health-conscious customers.
"If they're providing nutrition information in brochures, it becomes an advertisement and it becomes information that's subject to verification. So the food inspection agency should be checking out those numbers. People just need numbers that they can count on," said Jeffrey, the Canadian director of the Centre for Science in the Public Interest.
In the next round of testing, scheduled for later this year, CFIA will focus on net quantity, method of production and type of cut. For example, if the restaurant promotes a fish dish as Pacific Salmon, it can't be Atlantic. And if the menu says the item is a six-ounce grade A Alberta beef, it can't be five-ounce beef from Ontario. The newly released test results come as mandatory menu labelling continues to gain steam in North America as part of an effort to reduce obesity.
In the United States, some of the country's larger cities have passed menu-labelling laws, including New York City, Seattle and Philadelphia. The state of California also requires menu labelling and the U.S. health bill currently before Congress would take the California initiative national. Lawmakers say consumers make smarter choices when they know at the point of sale the nutrition facts for snacks and meals.
In Canada, if a private member's bill sponsored by an NDP member of the Ontario legislature passes, fast-food restaurants in that province will be required to limit trans fats and to provide nutrition labels on menus. A similar federal bill drafted by a Liberal MP in Ottawa was voted down in 2007.
Supporters and critics of Canada's healthcare system have found themselves in a new debate sparked by the decision of a provincial premier to seek heart surgery down in the United States. The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador said yesterday that Premier Danny Williams would be absent for a few weeks after his doctors recommended that he travel to the United States for a heart procedure.
As ultra-conservative weirdoes in the United States quickly pounced on the news, suggesting it proved that U.S. President Barack Obama's proposed health insurance reforms wouldn't work, some Canadian analysts agreed that it highlighted the weaknesses of Canada's health-care network.
"Think about the absurdity about Canadians spending their income on medical treatment outside the country because it's not provided here at home," said Brett Skinner, president of the Fraser Institute, the Vancouver-based free-market think-tank.
Newfoundland and Labrador Deputy Premier Kathy Dunderdale told reporters that Williams' doctors recommended he seek treatment in the United States after weeks of consultations, but did not give details about his condition or the procedure he would undergo. However, medical advocates said cases such as Williams or the late former Quebec premier Robert Bourassa, who sought cancer treatment in the United States, represent only a tiny fraction of all Canadian patients who receive medical care.
"I think it is really premature and unfortunate for any group or individual to interpret the fact that he's having something done outside the country as a judgment on the Canadian health-care system when we don't know what he's having done or his reasons for going south," said Dr. Danielle Martin, a family doctor and board member of Canadian Doctors for Medicare, in an interview.
But Skinner, who has a PhD in political science and public policy, said that Williams is just one among thousands of Canadians who seek healthcare services every year down south because of long waiting lists and poor access here.
"It's not like we lack the medical knowledge and technology and science to provide these things -- we just don't have a system that allows our providers to meet market demands. Our ban on private finance and our ban on competitive for-profit delivery of publicly funded goods and services is a huge barrier to doing those things, to providing for the needs of Canadian patients."
A recent analysis by the Fraser Institute estimated 41,000 Canadians were forced to seek healthcare services for non-emergency treatments in 2009. But, some say that those figures are misleading, arguing many can get reimbursed by the Canadian system while the vast majority of patients get the services they need at home.
Maude Barlow, national chair of the Council of Canadians, a social democratic advocacy group, noted that members of her own family have recently undergone heart surgery and cancer treatments in Canada and received the best services available.
"The Fraser Institute consistently fails to remember that close to 50 million Americans have no access to healthcare at all," she said. "You get sick, you lose your job, you lose your healthcare, you lose your house. Half the bankruptcies in the United States are because people cannot pay their medical bills."
Michael Jackson's doctor may surrender to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) tomorrow to face a charge in connection with Michael Jackson's death.
Celebrity gossip website TMZ reports that Dr. Conrad Murray will be charged with involuntary manslaughter and prosecutors will file a criminal complaint against Dr. Conrad Murray in court, rather than go through a secret grand jury.
Mr. Jackson died from an anaesthetic overdose on June 25, 2009 at the age of 50. The death was ruled a homicide, which was mainly caused by an anaesthetic. Dr. Murray has always maintained that he did not prescribe or administer anything that killed Jackson.
CNN's Ted Rowlands said that Dr. Conrad Murray is expected to be charged in connection with Mr. Jackson's death this week.
"Murray flew from Houston to Los Angeles over the weekend, anticipating the charges coming. His lawyers are also in Los Angeles. Now it's just a question of how and where they will take him in to custody," said Rowlands.
If Dr. Conrad Murray is charged, he would face a hearing at which the judge would consider the evidence and decide if he should go on trial.
Man, Toyota's misfortunes won't seem to disappear these days. First, there is a lawsuit for those who were apparently "inconvenienced." Then, another lawsuit by a bunch of people who want their resale value back (these people are pathetic). And now, there are complaints about brake problems with the company's 2010 Prius hybrid.
In the United States, more than 100 complaints alleging poor brake performance have been lodged with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration against the 2010 Prius, which is a newly-designed version of the car that was introduced last summer.
In Japan, 14 complaints about brakes in the Prius have been lodged since July. Japan's Transportation Ministry has asked Toyota to investigate brake malfunction complaints in Japan on the Prius, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.
"The complaints received via our dealers center around when drivers are on a bumpy road or frozen surface," Paul Nolasco, a Toyota Motor Corp. spokesman in Japan, said. "The driver steps on the brake and they do not get as full of a braking feel as expected."
A search of NHTSA's complaint database turned up many similar-sounding complaints in the United State.
"I have been driving my 2010 Prius for 6 months and have experienced the following nearly 10 times," wrote one owner, "When braking, if a pothole or bump in the road is hit, the car seemingly jerks forward/accelerates for a split second."
The Prius is Toyota's third best-selling model in the United States, ranking behind only the Camry midsized sedan and the Corolla compact car. Toyota's public image and its sales, have been hit by recent recalls involving unintended acceleration.
Toyota recalled 2.3 million vehicles on January 21 due to problems with sticking gas pedals and later halted the sale of the eight models involved in the recall. Toyota's U.S. sales decreased by 16% in January as a result, even as sales of other automakers increased. About 4.2 million vehicles were recalled in November for a problem in which the cars' gas pedals could get stuck in some floor mats. The last-generation version of the Prius was included in that recall, which was expanded to include another 1.1 million last week.
Brakes in hybrid cars like the Prius operate differently from brakes in most cars. In addition to standard brakes, which use friction from pads pressed against drums or rotors, hybrid cars use their electric motors to help slow the car, which is a process that generates electricity to recharge the batteries in the vehicle.
Start-up cell phone company DAVE Wireless Inc. Yesterday introduced the consumer brand name it will use once its network is complete and can begin offering services.
John Bitove, the chairman for Data & Audio Visual Enterprises Wireless Inc., introduced Mobilicity and said that wireless users in Toronto can expect a launch this spring.
"There's three words [in the brand name], mobile, simplicity and city-based services," he said in an interview. "It's an everyday value offer for everyday Canadians."
After Toronto, Mobilicity will launch in other major cities, such as Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa later this year, he said. The new carrier paid $243-million during the Government of Canada's wireless spectrum auction in 2008 for airwave licences that allow it to operate in 10 of Canada's 13 biggest markets.
"We're looking for customers that live, work and play in the communities that we have networks," added Dave Dobbin, the fledging carrier's chief executive.
He said that there was room to grow in each market that Mobilicity will operate in, despite the fact that seven in 10 Canadians already own a cell phone or smart-phone.
"Thirty percent of customers don't have mobile phones today so our customers will come from there. Only 8% of Canadians have replaced their landline phones [with wireless], so our customers will come from there," he said.
He also said that Mobilicity will target customers dissatisfied with their service from the current three companies that dominate the market.
"We will get customers from that segment as well," he said.
Mobilicity will compete against Canada's three major cell phone firms in Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and TELUS Corp. alongside rival start-up WIND Mobile, which launched in Calgary and Toronto in December and plans to have services Ottawa and Edmonton as soon as this month. Rogers, TELUS and BCE are preparing to report their financial performances for the final quarter of fiscal 2009 in the coming two weeks beginning Thursday when BCE reports.
Despite some pressure from WIND and increasing competition among themselves, analysts expect each company to continue adding wireless subscribers without any significant pressure on profit margins yet. However, that may change through fiscal 2010 as more new entrants arrive, including regional cable TV players Shaw Communications Inc. in Calgary and Videotron Ltee. over in Quebec.
The host of new players, including Mobilicity, are not expected to wage risky price wars with the incumbents, instead offer more services like mobile Internets for less money, which could erode earnings at the major carriers if they are forced to match it in an effort to guard market share. Although Mr. Dobbin was mum on pricing, he said Mobilicity would attempt to attract subscribers through value-added services as opposed to aggressive price cuts. "Our strategy is not to attack the incumbents," he said.
It is expected though that Mobilicity will follow a strategy pursued by WIND of offering wireless devices from traditional voice-and-text cell phones to smart-phones such as the BlackBerry at lower costs and with no contracts. WIND, the only new operator in the market, offers cell phones and smart-phones as well as data sticks that plug into laptops and allow users to access the Internets through its wireless network. Its pricing model offers "unlimited" voice and mobile access to Internets for flat rates that are cheaper than what the incumbents charge.
Yet, with 10,000 subscribers, the demands on WIND's network are relatively mild compared with its larger rivals. Once it fills up, analysts suggest WIND could be hard-pressed to cope with network congestion if it continues offer unlimited data.
Mr. Bitove said Tuesday that Mobilicity is "fully funded" to build an advanced 3G network in each of the five markets it will introduce services in this year.
Ah yes... the competition in Canadian wireless markets are finally starting to heat up, and it's going to be an interesting war.
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams, who occasionally stands up to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and once launched an "Anything But Conservative" campaign in that province, will undergo heart surgery later this week in the United States.
Deputy Premier Kathy Dunderdale confirmed the treatment at a news conference Tuesday, but would not reveal the location of the operation or how it would be paid for.
"He has gone to a renowned expert in the procedure that he needs to have done," said Dunderdale, who will become acting premier while Williams is away for three to twelve weeks. "In consultation with his own doctors, he's decided to go that route."
Williams' decision to leave Canada for the surgery has raised eyebrows over his apparent shunning of Canada's health-care system.
"It was never an option offered to him to have this procedure done in this province," said Dunderdale, refusing to answer whether the procedure could be done elsewhere in Canada.
Williams, 60, has said nothing of his health in the media.
"The premier has made a commitment that once he's through this procedure and he's well enough, he's going to talk about the whole process and share as much detail with you as he's comfortable to do at that time," she said.
Dunderdale wouldn't say where in the U.S. Williams is seeking treatment.
A popular Progressive Conservative premier, Williams has also seen his share of controversy. During the 2008 federal election, Williams vigourously opposed the Conservative government, launching his "Anything But Conservative," which has been credited with keeping the Conservatives from winning any seats in the province. He has also drawn criticism for his support of the seal hunt.
Canada gets a D in innovation, according to a report card issued today, ranking the country 14th among 17 industrialized nations for its ability to turn knowledge into money-making products and services. In a report from the Conference Board of Canada, this country ranked ahead only of Australia, Italy and Norway for innovation. So, it appears that the Conference Board likes to put down Canada, just like Dwain Lingenfelter putting down Saskatchewan.
Switzerland, Ireland and the United States supposedly topped the list.
"Canada is well-supplied with educational institutions and carries out scientific research that is well-respected around the world," said Gilles Rheaume, the Conference Board's vice-president of public policy.
"But with a few exceptions, Canada does not successfully commercialize its scientific and technological discoveries into world-leading products and services," he said.
Out of the 12 indicators used to compile these rankings, Canada was given a D in nine categories, two Cs and one B. Its highest grade was given for the number of scientific articles published relative to the population. Canada was eighth in that category. Canada was ranked particularly poorly in the area of international trademarks per capita, finishing ahead only of Japan.
As well, it was dead last in the technology-exchange category, which measures "the flow of technological know-how and technological services into and out of a country as a share of GDP." Denmark and the Netherlands, which were part of the overall study, were not graded in this category due to a lack of recent data.
Canada was noted for having much of its economy based on the trade of commodities, with little value added before export. "Canada sells raw materials to be processed elsewhere," the report said. The Conference Board said countries scoring higher than Canada in innovation spend more on science and technology, and also have public policies that drive innovation supply and demand.
It also noted the most innovative countries tend to be leaders in one or more areas. It cited Switzerland's dominant position in the development of pharmaceuticals, Ireland's leadership in making technology a bigger part of its economy, and the U.S. for having top science and engineering facilities along with large capital markets.
The board said Canada was once at the leading edge of biotechnology but has fallen behind due to a complicated and slow regulatory process, and a reluctance of domestic companies to buy products developed in their home country.
The bio-fuels sector, however, was singled out as an industry Canada could take a leadership role in due to its "relative success story with respect to the interplay between innovation and regulation" and "leading-edge research and technology demonstration." To build on this position, the board recommended regular reviews of renewable-fuel standards, harmonized regulations on such products between provinces, and resolving the conflict that exists between supporting the bio-fuels industry and "imposing stringent regulatory requirements."
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is accusing Prime Minister Stephen Harper of trying to sneak through a new environmental policy, comparing the announcement Saturday afternoon by Environment Minister Jim Prentice to the New Year's Eve phone call that Mr. Harper made to the Governor General asking to prorogue Parliament.
"Let's notice when they did it," Mr. Ignatieff told reporters today, as he is in Ottawa supposedly working although Parliament is shut down. "It's Hockey Day in Canada. It's Saturday afternoon. It's like the prorogation of Parliament. They hope Canadians won't notice that basically they backed away from their own target."
Mr. Prentice announced new environmental targets, saying the government will reduce carbon emissions by 17% from 2005 levels. This is in line with the targets announced by the Obama administration in the United States. Previously, the Conservative government had planned to reduce emissions by 20% over 2006 levels.
Mr. Ignatieff said he can't keep track of the number of times the government has changed its plan nor can he count the number of Conservative environment ministers (three).
"They haven't been credible in 2006. They're not credible in 2010," he said.
Mr. Prentice's spokesman, Bill Rodgers, said today there was plenty of warning for the news conference as "every major media outlet managed to get there."
"It wasn't exactly under the cloak of darkness," he said, pointing out that the deadline for announcing targets to the United Nations as required by the Copenhagen accord was January 31, 2010.
Meanwhile, the Liberal leader, repeated what he has said before that the government should not wait for the Americans to act to set its own policy. He says he understands the necessity of a continental approach but argues Canada can lead the way.
"The last excuse they had, which is we'll just wait for Barack Obama to give us our climate change plan, has been blown apart by the Massachusetts election [where the long-time Democratic Senate seat went to a Republican]. It's obvious to anybody who looks at American politics that Mr. Obama's got other fish to fry."
Mr. Ignatieff, who proposes a cap-and-trade system, says that the government risks waiting yet another "couple of years" before the American president overcomes his political difficulties and settles on a plan.
Toyota owners are hitting the auto giant with class-action lawsuits in response to problems that relate to possible sticky accelerator pedals.
Legal firms have filed statements of claim in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Texas against the automaker, supplier CTS Corp. and affiliated firms regarding the problem.
In Ontario, a driver, Steven Hamilton filed a claim 'on behalf' of owners across Canada on Monday, alleging that the automaker and supplier "knew or ought to have known" of inherent design defects in the pedal system and its components in models as far back as 2001.
The claim, which has not been proven in court, seeks compensation for losses and injuries as a result of the purchase or use of numerous Toyota vehicles. Hamilton said he only bought a Toyota model a few weeks ago and wants a full refund.
"Having only purchased a brand new car a few weeks ago, I simply cannot believe that Toyota would have sold me this vehicle," he said. "I can't even resell my car now."
The Toronto law firm of Rochon Genova LLP, which is representing Hamilton and proposed class members in the lawsuit, said it is concerned that recent Toyota announcements don't appear to resolve the problem or the issue of "a lack of a failsafe" to permit drivers to regain control of their vehicles.
"The consequences of these design defects, including the lack of failsafes used by other auto manufacturers, have resulted in numerous reports throughout North America of uncontrollable unintended accelerations, including cases of collisions involving severe injuries and death to drivers and passengers of these vehicles," the firm said.
Stephen Beatty, managing director of Toyota Canada, said he could not comment on the claim because he had not seen it yet.
In Regina, another lawyer has filed claims in different provinces against Toyota alleging unintended acceleration in the company's models have caused accidents. Meanwhile, a class-action lawsuit in Texas claims a family was in an accident after an Avalon suddenly accelerated through a stop sign. The claim attributes the crash to a faulty electronic control system.
This lawsuit sounds like it is... stupid. Good luck to Toyota, and we hope that they win.
Microsoft Corp., the world's largest computer software company, has an important reminder for those of you using Windows 7 Release Candidate. If you were too cheap to buy the final release when it was released back in October, the operating system will begin to shut down every two hours until June 1, 2010.
After that, the wallpaper of the desktop will be removed and a "This copy of Windows in not genuine" message will appear on the lower right corner of the screen. The users will not be able to obtain updates that require genuine Windows validation.
The company had launched the release candidate in May of 2009 for an early pre-launch preview of the popular operating system, which has now emerged as the fasting selling operating system in history.
The lawyer behind a class-action lawsuit against Toyota Canada says that the recent recall over accelerator problems has hurt the resale value of the vehicles, and owners deserve to be compensated.
Saskatchewan lawyer Tony Merchant, who specializes in major class-action suits, told CTV's Canada AM that his case, which has not yet been approved by a court -- is two-fold. Yeah, let's just hope the case doesn't get approved at all. I'd love to see this case get thrown out of court.
First, he said, Toyota Canada has apparently failed to deal honestly and openly with Transport Canada and has played down the problem that he says dates back to the early 2000s. Secondly, he said, it hasn't yet been proven that Toyota actually has a viable solution to the problem. While the company has blamed the sticky accelerator on the pedal assembly, and is repairing those parts, many suggest the problem is actually electronic in nature.
"But the real basis of the case, the most important part of the case is that this cloud over the value of Toyota and Lexus means people are going to lose a huge amount of resale value," Merchant said today. "It isn't just that people are having problems and some accidents, it's that their resale value has gone down, we think significantly, and we think they should be compensated."
Merchant estimated that as many as 400,000 vehicles in Canada could be affected by the recall problems. If the suit is successful, and each owner qualifies for $1,000 of compensation, and the price tag for Toyota would reach $400 million, he said.
"It's a loss of value that's very significant and everyone should contact us for that purpose because we think we're going to get $1,000 or $2,000 or $3,000 for everyone," he said.
Another class-action suit is also underway, launched by proposed plaintiff Steven Hamilton. His claim has been filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto. Toyota Canada, Toyota in the U.S. and parts supplier CTS are named as defendants. The claim alleges that Toyota and CTS either knew, or should have known, about the flaw that causes runaway acceleration in some of its vehicles.
Joel Rochon, a lawyer in Hamilton's class action lawsuit, says the lawsuit could potentially involve "tens of thousands" of claimants in Canada. That group also claims that the problem is related to faulty computer systems, rather than the accelerator pedal assembly.
American auto sales figures for January, due later on Tuesday, are expected to show a sharp drop for Toyota after it pulled eight of its most popular models from showrooms last week following complaints over sticking accelerator pedals.
In the first public comment from an executive at Toyota's head office, the company's executive in charge of quality said he was expecting a sales hit from the recall.
"The sales forecast is something that we're extremely worried about," Executive Vice President Shinichi Sasaki told a news conference. The company will report its third-quarter earnings on Thursday.
On top of a separate recall for slipping floor mats, also linked to unintended acceleration, some 8.1 million Toyota vehicles are now being recalled, more than its total group sales last year.
Although Toyota says the occurrence of problems is rare, public confidence is being shaken by coverage of the saga, including the harrowing details of the crash of a Lexus, blamed on unexpected acceleration, which killed an off-duty California state-trooper and three members of his family last year.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder, has not formally addressed the public or media on the recall problems. While in Davos, Switzerland last weekend, he appeared briefly on broadcaster NHK and apologized to consumers.
The company's U.S. head, Jim Lentz, appeared on TV on Monday and also expressed his regret as part of a public relations blitz in Toyota's largest market.
"We haven't had any accidents reported in our network," the spokesman stressed.
Toyota detailed its plans on Monday to fix the faulty pedals on at least 4.2 million vehicles in North America and Europe with a small metal spacer to prevent sticking.
Toyota said it would restart production on February 8 of the eight models including its popular Camry, Corolla and RAV4 models after an unprecedented one-week shutdown at six plants in the United States and Canada.
Sasaki said costs were not taken into account with the recall and said they would monitor sales before reviewing their 2010 forecast. Toyota last month forecast global auto sales would rise 6% this year, but has since said that did not take the impact of the recalls into account.
The costs for the recall and the shutdown now look to come to roughly 100 billion yen to 200 billion yen ($1.1 billion to $2.2 billion US), two analysts estimated.
"It's a positive that we now can grasp what the direct costs might be, but Toyota has yet to address uncertainties about indirect costs, such as litigation costs and costs of incentives to win back customers," said JP Morgan analyst Kohei Takahashi.
"The size of these indirect costs is of far greater importance" for Toyota's future, he said.
Shares in Toyota rallied 4.5% in Tokyo on Tuesday following the company's U.S. announcement on the fix and restart of production. The jump in its shares comes after about an 18% tumble over the last seven business days that wiped out more than $20 billion in market capitalization. A weaker yen also boosted shares, some investors said.
Toyota faces a growing number of lawsuits claiming it and its U.S. supplier CTS Corp endangered drivers by not acting sooner to fix problems with faulty accelerator pedals. Lawsuits announced on Monday in the U.S. claimed Toyota had ignored signs of trouble with some of its top-selling models.
The suits are part of what is expected to be a wave of litigation against the automaker for claims ranging from losses on car resale values to injury and death. Analysts and dealers said it would take months for the automaker to fix all of the vehicles at risk of having an accelerator pedal stick in the open position. Rivals such as General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. have been offering discounts targeting Toyota customers.
Now, if you are going to sue about the faulty accelerator pedals, we can kind of understand that. But if you are suing for lost resale value, you should be ashamed of yourself.
Saskatoon Transit riders adjusted to a new payment system today as the City of Saskatoon unveiled debit-style smart cards and electronic readers on its transit fleet. Some riders reported frustration and slight delays as a handful of people on each bus were caught unaware of the electronic fare system and how it works, despite an advertising blitz on buses and local media.
Yeah... people were "unaware."
Bus drivers showed leniency for riders without the new pass, allowing those who showed up with obsolete paper tickets to use them and telling people to buy the reloadable plastic Go-Pass. Transit officials said Monday they will allow people to use their January bus passes until Friday to help ease the transition.
The downtown customer service centre was lined up all day with an estimated 30-to-45-minute wait. The line-up stretched down 23rd Street in frigid temperatures while people packed inside the small building.
Angie Larson, Saskatoon Transit's business manager, said the long line-ups were a product of last week's snowstorm, which hindered people from picking up the pass early. Saskatoon Transit scheduled staff to help answer questions and troubleshoot problems for drivers and riders throughout the day and opened cashier counters at nearby City Hall, she said.
"We've had a lot of questions from the public today and a lot for the drivers, too," Larson said at a press conference during the noon hour. "It's a new system, something that hasn't been in Saskatoon before, so people don't quite know how to use it."
Saskatoon Transit now uses the Go-Pass rather than tickets or a paper monthly pass. The system is viewed by transit administration as a way to modernize the bus fleet and open up new pricing possibilities to attract more riders. It also allows transit to track usage so it is better able to plan bus schedules and routes, Larson said.
Denise Charpentier, 38, was on her way to work at the Stonebridge Home Depot store early today. She picked up her new pass last week to avoid long line-ups.
A daily transit user, Charpentier welcomes the change but conceded it was a confusing morning for many.
"It's going to be more confusing for those people who ride once in a while," she said.
Denise Chauvin, a Massey Place resident, said the new system has "serious drawbacks" for community groups and families who relied on bulk-buying bus tickets so that they were always on hand. She typically bought 10 tickets and then split them up among her family as they were needed. The minimum that can be loaded on one card is 10 tickets, so she says she'll have to purchase multiple cards.
"They need to be able to allow for one or two tickets on a card," she said. "You only want to give (children) enough tickets to get home."
Haiti should be preparing for another major earthquake that could be triggered by the catastrophic one last month which killed up to 200,000 people and left the capital Port-au-Prince in ruins, experts say.
Teams of geophysicists, who have been tracking movements in the fault line that slashes across Haiti and into the Dominican Republic, came to the nation last week to measure changes in the Earth's crust after the 7.0-magnitude quake on January 12.
Increased pressure on the fault after the quake could unleash another of the same size or bigger, although scientists acknowledge they have no way of knowing exactly when or where it will hit.
"Faults are always waiting for the right moment but if another earthquake gives them a little kick they go before their time," said Eric Calais, a professor of geophysics from Purdue University in Indiana, who is leading the seismology project in Haiti.
Preliminary calculations by his group show the January 12 quake could be the "little kick" that sets off another temblor along the 186 mile fault where two regional tectonic plates have been scraping together for millions of years.
More than 50 aftershocks, including one measuring at a 5.9 magnitude, have shaken Port-au-Prince after last month's quake. The U.S. Geological Survey says the aftershock sequence will continue for months, "if not years", and "damaging earthquakes will remain possible in the coming months".
Calais was due to take his findings to a meeting on Monday with President Rene Preval and the head of the United Nations mission in Haiti, in which he would stress the urgent need to rebuild the city's critical infrastructure safely and quickly.
Haiti's government has announced plans to relocate up to half a million homeless quake victims, many now camped out in rubble-strewn streets in temporary villages outside of Port-au-Prince. But some experts suggest the whole capital should be rebuilt away from the dangerous fault line.
Calais was part of a group of experts who warned Haitian officials in 2008 that there could be a 7.2 magnitude quake on the horizon.
But Haitian officials said there was not enough time or funds to shore up the impoverished Caribbean's country's shoddy construction or take precautions, and in last month's quake, many buildings pan-caked, with their bricks crumbling to dust.
"It's not too late. Now is the time to really get serious about this," Calais said.
Over 200 years ago, when Haiti saw its last major earthquake, there were actually several temblors in a row, two in 1751 and another in 1770, Calais said.
In one destroyed neighbourhood in the Haitian capital, where people now live in tents made of bed sheets and sticks, curious children watched the scientists set up specialized global positioning systems. The devices, placed at different points along the fault, will gather data over three days and compare it to information gathered over the past five years.
But for all the precise measurements, there is no such thing as an exact science of earthquake prediction. Haiti's national geological survey offices collapsed in the quake, killing some 30 people inside, including the institute's director. This complicates future research in a country that has no seismic network, except for Calais' GPS monitors.
"Scientists are blind when it comes to this earthquake... we rely on data that is coming from stations that are far away," he said. "It's like if you go to your doctor and the only thing we can do is look at you with binoculars -- so the diagnostic would be pretty poor."
Toyota Canada says it will install a steel reinforcement bar to fix sticky gas pedals that have led to the recall of about 270,000 vehicles in Canada and 4.2 million vehicles worldwide last month. The Canadian division of Toyota Motor Corp. said it will begin fixing accelerator pedals in eight recalled vehicles by the end of this week, but it is unclear how long customers will have to wait before the problem is addressed.
Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. also announced today that parts to the gas pedals are being shipped to dealerships and dealer training is underway to implement the fix. Repairs will have to wait until training is completed, the company said.
Toyota says the problem stemmed from the friction-controlling mechanism inside the accelerator pedal.
Over time, the mechanism could become worn, and when combined with condensation, could "begin to produce a sticking condition," the company said.
The remedy shipped to Toyota factories consists of a stainless steel reinforcement bar that adjusts the friction mechanism.
"People can have high confidence that the solution eliminates any possibility of sticking accelerator pedals," said Stephen Beatty, managing director of Toyota's Canadian operations.
Toyota, the world's top automaker, was forced in January to halt sales of eight recalled models in North America, including the best-selling Camry, until it fixes the issue. The company had announced it was sending new gas-pedal systems to car factories instead of dealerships, angering car dealers who wanted to get the fix first because they deal directly with customer concerns.
"The solution is at hand and is being rolled out to dealerships and we will begin repairing vehicles this week," Beatty said Monday.
Production at two Toyota manufacturing facilities in south-western Ontario will be halted this week because of the recall.
What do you do when you break into someone's home? Well, you'd leave the scene and not come back. Well, that's what logical people do. But in this situation, that wasn't the case.
Cops were still on the scene of a break-and-enter on Saskatoon's east side on Wednesday night when the suspects drove by the house in the victim's stolen car.
Cops were dispatched to the 2400 block of Munroe Avenue after the homeowner called to report that her house had recently been broken into and her car was missing.
Cops were still at the home investigating her report when a vehicle matching a description of the stolen car passed by the house around midnight, cops said.
Cops located the vehicle nearby, and subsequently arrested the two suspects with the help of a canine unit.
Officials at the University of Calgary are floating tuition hikes of as much as 47% in professional programs for next year, which are figures that student representatives call "terrifying."
The university is taking advantage of a one-time offer from the Government of Alberta to apply for increases in base tuition amounts in certain programs.
At least four core faculties, which include engineering, business, law and medicine, are targeted for the hikes, although masters programs for education and business administration are also being scrutinized and none of university's professional programs is necessarily off the table, officials said.
Medicine students, for example, face a $4,000 "market modifier" increase. Added to the 1.5% hike typically allowed each year, fees would jump by 27.8% to $18,600, from $14,384 the year before.
The figures are only preliminary and have not yet been sent to the Government of Alberta for approval, said Colleen Turner, the university's vice-president of external relations. The increases would bring tuition in line with other universities and take into account the likelihood of post-graduation income in the first few years after graduation, Turner said.
Further, the tuition hikes would ease the burden on the post-secondary facility, which has seen education costs rise while government funding fell in recent years.
"The reality is that costs are increasing and government grants aren't," Turner said. "We need to be able to continually evaluate our tuition rates, in particular in the professional schools, where the cost of delivering those programs are so much higher."
Under the new proposal, law students would fork out $13,800. Business students would pay $7,638 for a full 10-course load, an increase of about 47%, and engineering students $7,238, an average 39% increase for courses over the year before.
Students' union president Charlotte Kingston said the potential hikes are "absolutely massive" and suggested they could drive away potential students.
"What we're seeing is shocking," Kingston said. "It's going to create inequality of access in our programs."
Well, does this mean prospective students will move to other cities to attend university classes, such as Saskatchewan?
A 12-year-old boy and 13-year old girl from Indiana are facing felony charges for "sexting" each other with nude pictures. They face child exploitation and child pornography charges after the teacher confiscated the girl's cellular phone when it rang in class last week.
The two, who are in grades 6 and 7, attend the Ben Franklin Middle School in Valparaiso, Indiana.
The boy "had send a text and picture of his exposed genitals... and requested that she do the same," said a report on the incident from Valparaiso Police Department.
The department said the girl responded "via phone and text a picture of her nude exposed body and breasts."
Juvenile prosecutor Tim Harminak and the prosecutor's office advised police to file charges. The two were released into the custody of their parents.
In Canada, a former school employee faces charges of exploiting two male students after they were sent sexually explicit text messages in Black Diamond, Alberta.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's new focus on helping some of the world's poorest people won praise at the World Economic Forum from two of the annual conference's superstars, Bill Clinton and Bill Gates.
The former American president emerged from a 30-minute meeting with Mr. Harper on Thursday morning to laud the efforts of individual Canadians to support Haiti.
"It has been unbelievable," Mr. Clinton said. "I'll bet you on a per capita basis, they're No. 1 in the world now in helping Haiti. Probably because of the prime minister's matching grant program but, for whatever reason, the Canadians have all given money and all want to support it. You should be very proud of that. I'm very grateful."
The Conservative government has pledged to match all donations made to for Haitian recovery up to a maximum $50 million. So, if you decide to donate $50 million, as well as a penny, that penny will be disregarded.
Mr. Harper made a keynote speech in Switzerland Thursday evening. Among other things, he announced that the G8 should focus its attention on helping mothers and children in developing countries, which was a focus that was applauded by Bill Gates, whose charitable foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which also works to help developing nations.
"It's super that you've got that out there early so everybody's thinking about it," Mr. Gates told Mr. Harper.
Also, keep in mind: Canada is the first country to host both the G8 and G20 meetings in the same year.
Fewer distracted drivers and more traffic enforcement are at the root of the first year-over-year reduction in reported collisions Saskatoon has seen in January in four years, police say.
The number of collisions reported to police so far this month, at 359, is down from a high of 533 last year and is the fewest since 2006, which saw 311 reports.
"It's a positive indicator," said Saskatoon police acting Inspector Grant Obst.
The numbers are down this year despite a peak in collisions during a recent stretch of bad weather and road conditions, which saw a 19-year-old Swan River, Manitoba woman killed in a two-vehicle crash on Circle Drive.
One of the main factors thought to be behind the drop is a ban that came into effect January 1 on the use of hand-held cellular phones to talk, text, e-mail or surf the web while behind the wheel.
So far this month, police in Saskatoon have handed out one ticket alongside 44 warnings. Officers are only ticketing repeat offenders and those involved in collisions where cell phone use is identified as a factor, Obst said.
"We're giving people that chance to comply," he said.
"When the seatbelt laws came in years ago we went easy for the first little while until people became accustomed to it," Obst said. "But now if you don't wear your seatbelt you're going too hammered."
"I would say we'll probably employ a few more weeks of grace, but then you can count on $280 (the fine for the offence)."
Anecdotal evidence from officers indicates a high-degree of compliance from the public on the cell phone ban, with many drivers turning to hands-free technology. The other contributing factor to the decrease in the number of collisions might be eight additional traffic officers who have bolstered a section of the police service that was undermanned after redeployment in 2007.
Those officers have been making targeted efforts in school zones and other areas this month, Obst said. The Saskatoon Police Service is putting more emphasis on public awareness and trying to be "more vocal," Obst said, to address a traffic problem that has seen the number of collisions in the city rise steadily every year since 2005.
Since then, the number of collisions per year in Saskatoon has increased by 2,000.
In 2009, eight people died and 1,200 were injured in close to 8,000 collisions, the highest number on record, according to police statistics. It's too early to draw any conclusions, but Obst said he hopes the lower number of reported collisions in January is the start of a trend in the other direction.
"We are making a very, very focused stab at bringing the collision rate down," Obst said. "That's our mandate."
The Government of Canada will announce today that Canada is donating five million doses of its excess H1N1 vaccine to the World Health Organization, according to Canwest News Service.
The announcement is set to come a day after the Public Health Agency of Canada declared the second wave of the pandemic over. The WHO is co-ordinating the donation of vaccine for 95 developing countries and, until now, Canada had not indicated whether it would give away some of its pandemic vaccine or, if it did, how much.
Canada ordered 50.4 million doses of vaccine and it was apparent before the end of 2009 that it would have a surplus on its hands. At the time the order was placed, it wasn't known that only one dose of the vaccine would be sufficient to provide immunity. Federal officials have been saying for weeks that they were reviewing several options and would make an announcement at some point in the new year on what Canada would do with the excess supply.
Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq is expected to make the announcement about the vaccine donation today. Shipments of the vaccine should begin moving quickly because Canada's entire order has already been filled by GlaxoSmithKline and is being stored at the company's plant in Ste-Foy, Quebec.
While the prevalence of H1N1 has waned in Canada, it's still going strong in parts of eastern Europe, South Asia and North Africa and countries in those regions are expected to be on the receiving end of Canada's donation. The Government of Canada is expected to say in its announcement that the donation of five million doses is in line with what other developed countries have committed. Canada, however, took its time announcing it would make a donation to the WHO. Other nations, including the United States, Australia, Brazil, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom made a commitment to donate vaccine in September.
In the first week of January, the government said it was sending five million doses to Mexico but the shipments were not a donation, they are a loan. Some observers questioned the decision and also said Canada's slow action in responding to the WHO's call for donations could hurt the country's reputation.
Aglukkaq and Dr. David Butler-Jones, the nation's chief public health officer, answered the criticisms by saying they wanted to ensure Canada's needs were met first before pledging to give vaccine away.
A Saskatoon company that won an award for job creation in late 2009 issued 16 layoff notices this week.
Point2 Technologies Inc. issued the permanent layoff notices on Tuesday, effective that day, said company CEO Saul Klein.
Point2 develops and sells web-based inventory management and online marketing systems for the real estate and heavy equipment industries.
Klein said that the company was left with a number of employees who didn't fit in with a staff reorganization plan after Point2 began moving resources to the real estate side of the business when contracts with heavy equipment dealers were reduced in June.
Secured creditors for Canwest Ltd. Partnership (LP) voted overwhelmingly to approve the unit's restructuring plan yesterday, setting the stage for its sale or potential spinoff.
A total of 153 lenders voted in favour of the plan, representing about 97% of the votes cast and almost 90% of the unit's $1 billion or so in secured debt.
Under the terms, the LP will solicit bids for the chain, which owns the National Post and ten major metropolitan dailies across Canada, including The StarPhoenix, during the next six weeks. Failing a successful offer, the creditors will take ownership of the assets in a new, independent company, which will eventually be taken public.
The LP filed for creditor protection on January 8, 2010. It is the newspaper division of Canwest Global Communications Corp., whose major holding company, CMI, filed for creditor protection in October.
The re-launching of the Chalk River nuclear reactor in eastern Ontario has been delayed by at least a month, according to a release from Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.
The reactor, an important source of medical isotopes, has been out of service since May with a leaky containment vessel. The reactor was to have been brought online in March but welding troubles delayed repair work.
The problems are said to have been addressed and welding is to resume later this week.
AECL said the first medical isotopes will be distributed 10 days after the reactor is fixed, now expected to be sometime in April.
With his legislative agenda stalled and unemployment stuck in double-digits, U.S. President Barack Obama plans to use his first formal State of the Union address Wednesday night to outline his effort to rebuild the nation's economy and put more Americans to work.
As part of that revitalization, he will vow to fight to salvage the comprehensive overhaul of the healthcare system that was his domestic priority until it collapsed in Congress. He also is using the speech to make some pointed attacks on Washington lobbyists.
In his remarks, he painted a grim picture of the nation's economic challenges.
"By the time I'm finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance," the excerpts say. "Millions will lose it this year. Our deficit will grow. Premiums will go up. Co-pays will go up. Patients will be denied the care they need. Small business owners will continue to drop coverage altogether."
But, he adds: "I will not walk away from these Americans. And neither should the people in this chamber."
Mr. Obama declares that "despite our hardships, our union is strong."
He adds: "We do not give up. We do not quit. We don't allow fear or division to break our spirit. In this new decade, it's time the American people get a government that matches their decency; that embodies their strength. And tonight, I'd like to talk about how together, we can deliver on that promise.
Canada's privacy watchdog on Wednesday announced another investigation into Facebook after fielding a fresh complaint about a new tool launched on the popular social-networking website.
The probe comes on the heels of a sweeping investigation last year, in which Canada's privacy commissioner asked Facebook to change a number of policies and practices to comply with the country's private-sector privacy law. Facebook agreed to make changes, but the California-based company is now once again on the radar of Canada's privacy commissioner.
The new investigation will focus on a tool introduced last month, requiring users to review their privacy settings. The complainant alleges that the new default settings would have made a user's information more readily available than the settings the user previously had put into place.
"The individual's complaint mirrors some of the concerns that our office has heard and expressed to Facebook in recent months," said Elizabeth Denham, the assistant privacy commissioner who spearheaded the original investigation that spanned a year and who will also lead the second probe. "Some Facebook users are disappointed by certain changes being made to the site -- changes that were supposed to strengthen their privacy and the protection of their personal information."
Last July, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart released the findings of an in-depth examination of privacy issues raised by site, which now claims 350 million users worldwide, including about 13 million Canadians. Key concerns relate to Facebook's transparency and clarity, including the need to better explain how it handles the personal information and how it shares personal information with third-party developers that create applications, such as games and quizzes, for the social-networking site.
The report also recommended that Facebook provide users with increased control over their personal information. The following month, Facebook agreed to modify its site within one year to address the commissioner's concerns.
Since then, however, "changes to the site's privacy information, settings and tools have sparked criticism from users who feel that personal information posted to the site is, in some instances, even more exposed now than before," according to the commissioner.
Darren Meister, a professor of information systems at the University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business, said Facebook is "just the next big company that's walking into this problem."
The value to a company of being involved in a social-networking space is in being able to target ads toward specific users, said Meister.
"They're providing a free service to the users, and what they need to pay for that service is the ability to target ads. And as they continue to innovate this service, we have this evolving social contract: What information do I allow to be public and what is private? People keep asking, 'Where's that line?'"
In a statement, Facebook said last month's rollout was both transparent and within the bounds of Canada's private-sector privacy law.
"We have not seen the complaint but we are confident that the transition process begun more than a month ago was transparent, consistent with user expectations, and within the law. Specifically, the announcement and education campaign by Facebook around the changes was unprecedented in its scope and included a detailed preview of the changes and flows with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner."
Further, "any recommended changes to a user's privacy settings were clearly shown to the user repeatedly and were not implemented until the user accepted these changes. In addition, users were required to review the final settings after any changes and pointed to where they could reverse or further customize their settings," Facebook said in a statement.
It looks like an oversized iPhone, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs is betting the world will be excited about the much-hyped and rumour-laden iPad tablet computer. Wow... a tablet computer.
In introducing the new electronic gadget Wednesday in San Francisco, Jobs held up the touch-screen device, which is a little smaller than a magazine.
"And we call it the iPad," he told the audience. "It is the best browsing experience you've ever had," Jobs said in front of a giant screen showing the new product.
The icons are like those on the iPhone, complete with a tray at the bottom, and the iPad runs on the iPhone's operating system. Jobs spent some time showing off some of the iPad's features, including e-mail and web browsing. It will ship with iTunes installed.
It has a 9.7" (25 cm) display that can show full web pages and has an onscreen QWERTY keyboard that is almost full-sized.
"It's half-an-inch thin and weighs just 1.5 pounds (680 grams)," Jobs said.
It's powered by a 1GHz Apple A4 chip, and has 16GB to 64GB of flash storage. It has 10 hours of battery life and over a month of standby power.
Taking advantage of the more than 140,000 applications already available for iPhones and iPod Touch devices, the iPad will be able to run any application in Apple's App Store unmodified. To date, more than three billion apps have been downloaded for iPhone and iPod Touch devices.
The iPod is "our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price," Jobs said
"Because they've shipped 75 million iPhones and iPod touches, there's 75 million people who already know how to use the iPad."
While every iPad will come with Wi-Fi technology, only some will be able to access next generation or 3G cellular phone networks. Jobs said the iPad will start at $499 US for the 16 GB version, while a 32 GB model will cost $599 and a 64 GB model will cost $799. Versions of the iPad with built in 3G connectivity will cost an extra $130, ranging in price from $629 to $829.
Jobs said the company hopes to have Wi-Fi models available within 60 days, including in Canada. These will function without support from a wireless carrier. An international carrier arrangement will be announced in the June or July time frame, raising the possibility that the 3G iPad be available in Canada this summer.
While Canada's carriers were mum today when asked if they have plans to introduce the iPad on their networks, Richard Smith, a communications professor in Simon Fraser University near Vancouver, said Jobs' move to end the subsidy model that locks consumers into long-term contracts with wireless carriers could change the way Canadians buy wireless devices.
"Apple is disrupting their business model, which is to lock people into three year plans," said Smith. "There is no subsidy; Apple is just selling it as it is. It is very scary for phone companies."
Alfred Hermida, journalism professor at the University of British Columbia, said while there may be been too much hype around the release of the iPad, its impact will be long-term.
"We have a tendency to underestimate the long-term impact of these kinds of devices," he said. "What Apple does really well is combine form and function. It is less about the hardware and much more about the user experience."
Videogame maker Electronic Arts also debuted games designed for the iPad, while Major League Baseball showed off how it plans to use the iPad to enhance its own digital offerings. Apple also unveiled a new online book store, iBooks, which will allow readers to download digital e-books to their iPad similar to the way users of Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle device can download books over next generation cell phone networks. A note on Apples iPad features page acknowledges that so far the iBook store is only available in the U.S.
In a move designed to position the iPad as a device for business users, Apple also showcased a new version of its iWork productivity software designed for the new device. Jobs said the iPad will sync with a computer over a USB connection just like an iPod or iPhone.
You know what I've always hated about youths, besides their foul stenches? The fact that they drink energy drinks, when they don't need them. Occasionally, you'll see a high school student that drinks energy drinks. And why would they drink so many of them? Well, they are stupid, as I fail to see why they would need energy drinks in the first place. As a university student taking five classes and attempting to study, I can see why I would drink those things... but I don't drink them.
Well, Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools has enacted a new nutrition policy, and energy drinks are forbidden from school property. Now that's good.
The policy, which division administrators approved last week, will also prompt the gradual elimination of diet pops, sweetened juices, flavoured milks and waters, and sports drinks from Catholic school vending machines, cafeterias and school events where food is served.
"There is such a proliferation in the amount of prepared -- and, in some cases, unhealthy -- food choices going on," Superintendent of Education Greg Chatlain said. He expects the policy to be phased in at Catholic schools during the next couple of years.
"You think about what's best for student learning," Chatlain said. "Coming with the equivalent over lunch time of eight or 10 cups of coffee, plus three, four times the amount of sugar that's in a regular pop, are they going to be ready to learn? Likely not."
The policy says schools are concerned about the effects of energy drinks on students' behaviour and health. When asked about how the energy drink will be enforced, Chatlain says it "isn't the Criminal Code." Staff members that discover students drinking the rancid stuff will likely have a chat with the student about the product, he says. Man, that's lame. You've got to take it seriously and in the end, you must make a big deal out of it. After all, that's the fun of banning students from doing certain things.
Only a tiny fraction of Canadians who flock to social networking sites actually trust the operators to keep their personal information private and secure, a government-sponsored survey has found. The newly released results found that only 6% trust the sites, compared with 79% of Canadians who don't trust them at all. Meanwhile, 15% said they were neutral on the question.
Along with an overwhelming lack of trust in social networking sites, the survey, commissioned by Natural Resources Canada to gauge the public mood about privacy and geo-special information, also found a very tepid response to street-view images of private homes, such as Google Street View.
When asked if these images should be allowed in Canada, only 26% agreed compared to 36% who said they should not be allowed; 36% were neutral on the subject.
Meanwhile, a strong majority -- 74% -- think it's important for the federal government to regulate images of private residences appearing on Internet mapping tools.
The online survey of 2,200 Canadians was administered last fall, just before the Canadian launch of Google Street View with a company commitment to blur all faces that were captured in the images.
The survey was also completed after Facebook announced new safeguards to protect the privacy of users in response to demands from Canada's privacy commissioner.
"What I think this shows is that people aren't really buying the assurances that (private) sector companies are giving them and taking them with a grain of salt," said Avner Levin.
The director of the privacy and cyber crime institute at Ryerson University's Ted Rogers School of Management in Toronto cited media reports of hacked celebrity Twitter accounts and Facebook scams.
"People see that and say, 'Sure they're reassuring me that my information will be safe and secure, but I don't have a sense from reading the news,' " said Levin.
However, Levin said that the disconnect between people's attitudes and their behaviour offers some good news for site operators and online businesses.
Since 2008, comScore Inc., a marketing firm specializing in measuring the digital world, has named Canada as the #1 nation in the world in social networking adoption.
Google Canada, meanwhile, reported that global traffic doubled on the day the company launched Street View in Canada last October; and, before the launch, Canadians viewed more than 150 million street view images in other countries in the first nine months of 2009.
"What we see with personal information is a lot people are concerned about their personal information and how it's protected, but it doesn't translate into some kind of action, like, 'I'm going to stop using this particular website or this online service,' " said Levin.
The survey also found that trust in the private sector to protect personal information is low. Only 18% said they trusted large corporations to keep their personal information secure, compared to 15% for small businesses.
Trust was highest among medical institutions and government departments, but the levels were hardly impressive.
Meanwhile, 58% said they trusted medical institutions to keep their personal information private and secure, compared to 46% for provincial and federal governments.
Meanwhile, more than half of the respondents said they had experienced a violation of personal information or privacy. However, this had little impact on the overall level of concern about the privacy of their personal information; it ranged from 80 to 85% for all respondents, even if they had not experienced a violation.
The polling firm Phase 5 Consulting Group Inc. weighted the data from the online poll to reflect national statistics by region, age and gender.
As well, the firm conducted a telephone survey of 550 Canadians to validate the online results, with a margin of error of 4%, 19 times out of 20.
Cops have charged a woman with assault after a pie was pushed into the face of federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea yesterday in Burlington, Ontario.
Shea was delivering a speech at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters to open the Aquatic Life Research Facility, west of Toronto.
Cops in Halton say that a woman stood up in the front row and pushed the "shaving cream pie" squarely into Shea's face.
The animal-rights group PETA says it is responsible for the incident. PETA says in a release it was part of its campaign "to stop the government's ill-advised sanction of the slaughter of seals," and called the pie used a "tofu cream pie."
Shea, who represents a Prince Edward Island riding, did not require medical attention and returned to the podium after wiping the pie from her face.
Emily McCoy, 37, of New York City, was taken into custody and charged with assault.
"Shame on you Gail Shea... it is a shame on Canada, it is a shame that she has not denounced this bloody seal hunt," the protester said after Shea was pied.
Colleen Walsh beat up a guy last spring and was charged as she beat someone up aboard a transatlantic flight was found guilty last week of failing to comply with instructions of a crew member and assaulting another passenger, Stan Harrington.
As part of her sentencing, Walsh was ordered to post an apology to Harrington on an Internet blog, on which she had made insulting comments to him.
"If I am accused of this ridiculous charge, he will be known as the wimp who was beat up by a girl on an airplane," Walsh stated in a January 1 post, which is still on the site.
During her three-day trial at a provincial court in St. John's, Walsh said she had made the statements after months of suffering, and added that she takes full responsibility for her actions.
However, in her apology, posted Monday on originalgreenwichdiva.com, she was also quick to point the finger at Harrington.
While she said "sorry" for posting the insulting comments, she went on to say "but you should look at the comments made about me on other websites..."
"So Mr. Harrington, I apologize that your children or grandchildren might have had to read those comments, but you should try to understand what my family has had to endure with the comments made about me."
"Mr. Harrington, had you not made such a big deal about the situation, none of this would ever have occurred."
Her post was originally on the site on Monday morning, but was taken down just hours later. It was only reposted after The Telegram inquired to the webmaster about its disappearance.
Canada for Haiti, the one-hour special produced collaboratively by CBC, CTV and Global Television that aired on Friday, raised more than $13.5 million for relief efforts in Haiti.
When the funds are matched by the Government of Canada, the amount increases to more than $27 million. An additional $6.7 million was raised in Quebec in a French-language telethon, bringing the overall total with federal contributions to more than $40 million.
"We are so grateful and humbled by the astounding generosity shown by Canadians both during and after (the concert)," said Dave Toycen, CEO of World Vision Canada. "This amazing and compassionate response says to those suffering children and families in Haiti that Canadians care."
Funds will benefit the Canadian Red Cross Society, Care Canada, Free the Children, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam Quebec, Plan Canada, Save the Children Canada, UNICEF Canada and World Vision Canada.
That movie Avatar has surpassed Titanic to become the highest-grossing movie worldwide, distributor 20th Century Fox said on Tuesday.
The worldwide total for the James Cameron movie stands at $1.859 billion after Monday's sales, beating the $1.843 billion haul racked up by Titanic in 1997-1998, said Greg Brilliant, spokesman for the News Corp.-owned studio.
The data are not adjusted for inflation.
Avatar broke the seemingly insurmountable record set by Titanic in little over six weeks, handing Cameron the remarkable feat of directing the world's two biggest movies of all time. It has reigned at the top of North American box office for six weeks. It has also led the field in France, China, Germany and Russia.
The action-adventure movie, starring Sigourney Weaver, is set in 2154 and tells the tale of a disabled ex-Marine sent to Earth to infiltrate a race of 10-foot (3-metre) blue aliens and persuade them to let his employer mine their homeland for natural resources. The film took more than five years to make and was reportedly one of the most expensive films, with a budget of at least $300 million.
It has somehow impressed both critics and fans, winning a Golden Globe last week. The movie is also expected to garner an Oscar nomination next month.
A report says that urban land use policies are making homes almost unaffordable in markets around the world, including Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.
The Demographia International report looked at 272 metropolitan markets in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland.
The report says Vancouver is the most unaffordable market in the world when median housing sale values are compared to median household incomes. It says Toronto is in the severely unaffordable category and Montreal is classified as being seriously unaffordable because of constraints on land use.
Wendell Cox, one of the authors, blames urban consolidation policies that restrict the development of suburban residential neighbourhoods for high housing prices. Cox says governments should allow more housing to be built on the fringes of urban areas to help keep costs down.
A nation that has traditionally thought of itself as liberal and forgiving is adopting a hard line on crime and punishment, including the death penalty.
This hardening attitude among Canadians is revealed in a new Angus Reid public opinion survey that found 62% of respondents favour capital punishment for murderers, while 31% believe that rapists should be put to death.
The figure is a significant boost from the last such survey, in 2004, when 48% favoured capital punishment for murderers.
The results of the survey are sure to buoy the Government of Canada, which has closely aligned itself with tough-on-crime policies such as mandatory minimum prison terms for a wide range of offences. However, they belie statistics that show falling crime rates and studies that say harsh sentences don't prevent people from committing offences.
The survey, one of three conducted simultaneously last fall in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, reveals a shared belief that even though mandatory minimum sentences can be unfair to people convicted of minor offences, they are an indispensable tool in fighting crime.
Saskatoon Transit buses running behind schedule will get priority at several intersections along a congested stretch of College Drive this summer, as part of a pilot project that Saskatoon Transit hopes will reduce delays.
The transit branch hopes to shave minutes off the travel time of a local bus trip by adopting technology that can keep green lights on just a little longer or turn red lights to green as the bus approaches, as long as doing that does not cause another set of traffic snarls.
"If the buses are running late, they will get the assistance from the lights changing," said Saskatoon Transit's business manager Angie Larson. "It will give buses more time to make their schedules."
The test project, which will cost $300,000, will run at five intersections on College Drive, between Clarence Avenue and Cumberland Avenue, and will be tested in 30 buses running on Saskatoon Transit's DART routes.
Small GPS units already mounted on the arms of several traffic lights will link up with systems installed inside buses, which, in turn, will be interfaced with the bus route schedule.
If a bus is running behind schedule by a set amount of time, a green light will be extended, held on green longer or switched to green earlier, for a few seconds, but only if that doesn't cause other traffic issues on cross-streets, said city traffic operations engineer Goran Lazic.
For years, traffic engineers resisted the technology because it was thought to congest cross-streets, but it has been improved to give more control, said Lazic.
"It's a subtle way of tweaking the system to make it more effective for buses," he said. "It's not noticeable or drastic. People will not notice it if it's done right."
It's become commonplace during morning rush hour along College Drive to see several buses bunched together on the inside lanes. One of the primary passenger complaints often cited in transit's research is scheduling problems, Larson said.
"We would like to improve upon that," Larson said. "Since we won't have buses sitting for as long at the lights, there will be a bit of a fuel savings."
The transit department will evaluate the impact of the system and report to council next fall, but isn't yet willing to make any predictions on how much it will help. In Los Angeles, the transportation authority has been able to shave 25% off of the travel time on its express bus routes through a similar electronic system that can hold green traffic lights longer.
If successful, Saskatoon Transit hopes to take the program city-wide along major corridors with other emergency services already investigating piggy-backing on to the same technology.
The only traffic light pre-emption system running in Saskatoon is on Idylwyld Drive for the fire department. A green light at intersections near the station can be triggered manually by pushing a button as fire trucks leave the station responding to an emergency.
The transit priority technology received a boost this week at the city's audit committee, made up of councillors, with some expressing support for the project and hope that, at some point, buses will be able to outpace cars, shifting the decision-making of drivers in the car-oriented middle class.
"I want to get to the point where someone driving a car is sitting there and a bus goes flying by and they think, 'Oh, that's a better option,' " said Councillor Charlie Clark.
It seems winter comes after spring in Saskatchewan. Well, I'm pretty sure a lot of people in Saskatchewan can agree with that statement right now.
After more than a week of temperatures at least 10°C above average, most city services crawled to a stand-still yesterday with crews reporting the worst weather conditions since the blizzard that shut down the Saskatoon in 2007.
"We haven't seen it this bad since our blizzard in 2007," said Troy Davies, spokesperson for MD Ambulance in Saskatoon.
Paramedics rescued one man who spent the night trying to walk to Saskatoon after he was stranded while snowmobiling outside the city Saturday night. The man became stranded around 7 p.m. Saturday, and a passerby found him sleeping in the ditch Sunday morning. MD Ambulance picked up the man at noon approximately 20 kilometres west of the city on Highway 16. He suffered serious hypothermia but is now in stable condition, said Davies.
Several calls also came in from people injured while shovelling driveways, and others who slipped in snow. MD Ambulance also had to use its SUV to pick up staff that were stuck at home, and activated its quad mobile response unit in case the ambulances were unable to get through. On several occasions, MD staff pulled over to help push out drivers who were stuck.
"As soon as you try to drive faster, that's when you see all these accidents happening," Davies said.
He also says that people should be cautious when digging themselves out.
"Yesterday we had one person go into cardiac arrest after shovelling snow. That just throws up red flags for us," Davies said. "It sounds ridiculous but you've got to take your time... we've had people die every year from this."
City services also suffered, with snow blocking many streets.
"It's pretty bad out there," said Mitch Riabko, manager of transit at the City of Saskatoon.
On Sunday morning, 28 transit buses went out on regular routes and 14 of them got stuck within the first hour and had to be towed in.
The last time transit service was cancelled was in 2007, when the January 10 blizzard dumped approximately 25 centimetres of snow as the wind gusted up to 90 km/h. School buses to both the Saskatoon Public and Catholic schools will not run today due to road conditions.
A temporary parking ban has been declared from 5 p.m. today until 5 p.m. on Thursday on streets designated as snow routes, which are marked by "No Parking Snow Route When Declared" signs. It includes Priority 1 and 2 streets. More information can be found on the City of Saskatoon website under "S" for Snow and Ice Program. The parking ban is in place to ensure high-traffic streets are cleared quickly.
Extra public works staff was brought in to help clear streets on Sunday, with 12 graders out, as well as three snow-plows, three loaders and regular sanding crews. Additional staff was called in to help with any mechanical breakdowns. The city also worked with MD Ambulance and city transit to help any stuck vehicles get through the city streets.
"As soon as we're finished clearing it, it's blowing in again," said Wade Gasmo, public works manager with the City of Saskatoon, on Sunday.
"The guys are working their hardest right now," Gasmo said, noting crews would work longer shifts to keep on top of snow clearing overnight. "This isn't an annual sort of thing."
Environment Canada issued winter storm and blizzard warnings across much of the province, with the worst of the storm occurring in the southern part of the province, though storms extended as far north as Cumberland House, Pelican Narrows and the Creighton area.
According to Environment Canada, the storm was caused by a strong low pressure system from Wisconsin moving into northern Ontario. The moisture coming with it was pushed into Canada, while at the same time meeting an Arctic high pressure ridge moving down from the Yukon into Alberta and Saskatchewan.
"You've got the moisture coming from the low, and the Arctic air coming from the Arctic high that's up over the Yukon and the Northwest Territories," said Greg Pearce, an Environment Canada forecaster.
The result of the two systems clashing is "lots of snow and wind," he said, noting the storms were likely to come to an end overnight Sunday. Temperatures were expected to "plummet" after the storms, with a high of -14°C today and low of -24°C expected for tonight.
Before the stormy weekend, temperatures were on average a balmy 7-10°C above normal for this time of year, which is a high of -10°C and a low of -19°C.
"That's all coming to an end now," Pearce said.
RCMP issued a warning Sunday to motorists travelling on Highway 11 between Davidson and Chamberlain after dealing with several vehicles that had hit the ditch by mid-morning, though no fatalities were reported because of the storm.
"With the amount of loose snow that's around right now, people can expect to see drifting snow and finger drifts on the highways that our crews will be treating for the next several days," said Doug Wakabayashi, spokesperson for the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure.
Drivers are recommended to keep an eye on road conditions for the next few days and check with the Highway Hotline before travelling.
An international affairs expert is warning that Canada's embassy in Iran runs the risk of being seen as a "nest of spies," after it was revealed on the weekend that Canada's ambassador to Iran in 1979 was spying for American intelligence officials during the Islamic revolution.
Wesley Wark, a professor at the Munk Centre of International Studies at the University of Toronto, said the idea that Ken Taylor, Canada's ambassador to Iran between 1977 and 1980, was gathering intelligence in preparation for a U.S. commando raid to free dozens of American hostages, could put Canada's current diplomatic ties at risk.
"Embassy staff may find themselves in a situation like the Canadian Embassy in Moscow during the Cold War," said Wark. "Things are going to get a lot more complicated."
Wark's remarks followed revelations from a new book that Taylor became "the de facto CIA station chief" after the U.S. Embassy was seized by Iranian students on November 4, 1979.
Among the hostages were the top U.S. diplomats and the four Central Intelligence Agency officials stationed in Tehran, leaving then-U.S. president Jimmy Carter with no diplomatic or intelligence capabilities.
According to the new book, Our Man in Tehran, by Trent University historian Robert Wright, Taylor collected intelligence under a secret agreement between the Canadian and the U.S. governments. Wright said Carter made a personal request to then Prime Minister Joe Clark that Taylor provide intelligence to prepare for a potential U.S. raid, code-named Operation Eagle Claw, to rescue the hostages.
Flora MacDonald, Canada's foreign minister at the time, said Clark's government, in the midst of an election campaign, was ready to help the Americans in any way it could.
"We were very close allies," she said in an interview with Canwest News Service. "But we were operating on a knife's edge."
She said the decision to hide six U.S. Embassy staff that eluded capture during the revolution, then spirit them out of Iran, disguised as a Canadian film crew, was done without a second thought. MacDonald said Taylor was already involved in that covert mission, heading what became known as the famed "Canadian Caper," so collecting more detailed intelligence was just a logical step for him.
The Canadian ambassador, along with an undercover CIA operative known only as "Bob" who arrived in Tehran after the hostage taking, created a detailed plan for a complex operation that would require commandos "to get from the desert, to the city and back again."
Taylor, along with Jim Edward, head of security at the Canadian Embassy, and "Bob", assessed potential helicopter landing sites and arranged for trucks to be held at a secret location.
"I was ready to do what they asked," Taylor recounted on Sunday.
He was celebrated 30 years ago as a hero of the crisis.
"I was working within the framework of my traditional Canadian diplomatic operations."
But this is where Wark disagrees. He said that if Taylor was essentially conducting an espionage operation for the U.S. from the Canadian Embassy, it is unprecedented and beyond a "regular" operation.
Wark said intelligence agents have long operated on foreign soil under the protection of "official cover," and it was natural for Canada to offer assistance. He said it fits into long-standing intelligence sharing between the two countries, and after the U.S. Embassy staff were captured, they were "quite desperate to know what was going on in the streets."
Wright said the way the intelligence gathering was ordered makes it impossible to call it an American espionage ring. Taylor, he said, was working for a Canadian operation that shared intelligence with the U.S. government.
"The strategic stakes were extraordinarily high," Wright said. "This looks to me as if it was a one-off. A very unusual situation."
Wark agreed that the formalization of a Canadian diplomat providing information for a military operation is unique. He said his biggest fear is that there will be blowback on current Canadian efforts in Iran.
Wark points out that Canada's role as an interlocutor could be compromised if Iranian officials believe that the Canadian Embassy is a "nest of spies."
The term "nest of spies" was the moniker given to the U.S. Embassy by the Iranian students who stormed the compound in 1979. Wark said the worst-case scenario is the harassment of Canadian officials and virtual non-cooperation. That could potentially hurt everything from trade negotiations to nuclear proliferation talks, he said.
Relations between Canada and Iran have been strained since 2003, when Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi died in an Iranian prison. Last year, Canada's delegation walked out of a speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations.
Wark points out that the ripple effects of the hostage crisis remain. Thirty years later, the U.S. still does not have an embassy in Tehran, leaving Canada's role open to questioning by Iranian officials already wary of the West.
As Taylor puts it, "nothing keeps the lights on in Tel Aviv, Washington, London and Moscow like Iran does." Taylor said the information gathering done by him and his staff put them all in grave danger but that everybody was on board.
"Everything could have fallen apart," he said. "If the Iranians discovered us running an intelligence ring under the roof of a Canadian Embassy, it could have been catastrophic."
On January 27, 1980, after the six Americans in hiding under Canadian care had been ferreted out of Iran, Taylor and the rest of his staff evacuated Tehran and closed the embassy. As a final precaution, a large axe was used to destroy the cipher machines that coded the secret messages between Ottawa and Tehran. According to Taylor, the plan was to return to Iran after a few weeks and resume intelligence gathering for the planned commando rescue operation. But it was deemed too dangerous, and he never went back.
Three months later, a version of Operation Eagle Claw was launched by Carter, but it ended disastrously when a U.S. military helicopter crashed in the Iranian desert during a sand storm, killing eight marines. The remaining American hostages were finally released, 444 days after they were taken, 20 minutes after U.S. president Ronald Reagan took office.
China hit back hard against U.S. criticism of China's controls over the Internet, saying on Friday that the United States' push against online censorship could harm relations between the two big powers.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's speech against Internet censorship on Thursday raised contention with China over cyber policy, which flared after Google Inc. last week warned it could pull out of China over hacking and restrictions.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said the U.S. criticisms could hurt ties between the two nations, the world's biggest and third biggest economies, already frayed over trade imbalances, currency values and U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan.
"The U.S. has criticized China's policies to administer the Internet and insinuated that China restricts Internet freedom," said Ma, in a statement carried on the Foreign Ministry website www.mfa.gov.cn. "This runs contrary to the facts and is harmful to China-U.S. relations."
"We urge the United States to respect the facts and cease using so-called Internet freedom to make groundless accusations against China," Ma said without mentioning Clinton by name.
But the spokesman also indicated that his government did not want to see the dispute overwhelm cooperation with the Obama administration, which has sought China's backing on economic policy and diplomatic standoffs, such as Iran and North Korea. Ma said each side should "appropriately handle rifts and sensitive issues, protecting the healthy and stable development of China-U.S. relations".
Clinton's speech criticized the cyber policies of China and Iran, among others, and demanded that China investigate complaints by Google Inc., the world's biggest search engine operator, about hacking and censorship.
"A new information curtain is descending across much of the world," said Clinton, calling growing Internet curbs the present-day equivalent of the Berlin Wall that contravene international commitments to free expression.
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are blocked in China, which uses a filtering "firewall" to prevent Internet users from seeing overseas web sites with content anathema to the Communist Party.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told reporters that America had discussed the Google case with China several times from "working levels to very senior levels". It was unclear how the United States could prod China into opening up the Internet. Some fear strong-arm tactics could backfire and make China control content even more tightly.
Ties between China and the United States have been put to the test in recent months over trade, currency, and climate change and arms sales to Taiwan. This month, China denounced the U.S. sale of Patriot air defence missiles, capable of intercepting Chinese missiles, to Taiwan, which China claims as its own.
China announced its own anti-missile test soon after. China has warned that more U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan could badly bruise relations with America and has urged President Barack Obama not to meet the Dalai Lama, the exiled Buddhist leader of Tibet who China denounces as a separatist.
"I think over the short haul (the Google issue) is going to go away because other problems that the U.S. and China face are rather numerous," said Niu Jun, an international studies expert at Peking University. "I think economic and trade issues are still more important. Both sides will find a positive solution through talks. But this is not necessarily just a simple commercial issue. I don't know what the solution will be. But it won't take a long time."
Among other issues, China accuses the United States of protectionism in anti-dumping cases against Chinese exports like tires and steel, while America says China stokes global economic imbalances and the U.S. trade deficit by undervaluing its currency.
Canada's first permanent full-body scanner, referred to as some as a being a visual strip-search, is now screening passengers as Toronto's Pearson International Airport.
The scanner was installed on Wednesday morning in the airport's Terminal 1, intended only for American-bound passengers who are selected for a secondary screening. Those selected passengers can then choose between a physical pat-down and the full-body scanner, which takes about five seconds.
Transport Canada is currently working on having more full-body scanners installed at major airports across Canada.
Saskatoon Transit's fleet of buses saw seven buses requiring minor repairs and two requiring major refurbishment after SGI examined 26 buses as part of a safety audit that wrapped up yesterday.
Out of the two buses that required major repairs, one will be back on the road today and the other was already slated for refurbishment, said Saskatoon Transit Manager Mitch Riabko.
"We did really well," said Riabko. "I'm pretty proud of our maintenance staff here."
In recent years, the City of Saskatoon has undergone a major bus replacement program at an increased rate to upgrade the aging fleet, which still has buses on the road from the late '70s, Riabko said.
Not too long ago, there was a recall by Toyota regarding acceleration problems related to a floor mat issue.
Well, now, the company is recalling 2.3 million vehicles in Canada and the United States, which is the latest in a series of safety issues that have sent the Japanese automaker skidding in global markets.
Toyota Canada Inc. is voluntarily recalling newer RAV4, Corolla, Matrix, Avalon, Camry, Highlander, Tundra and Sequoia models after a company investigation found certain gas pedals could stick in a partially depressed position or return slowly to the idle position.
"The condition is rare, but can occur when the pedal mechanism becomes worn and, in certain conditions, the accelerator pedal may become harder to depress, slower to return or, in the worst case, stuck in a partially depressed position," the carmaker said in a statement.
Back in November, over one million Toyota and Lexus vehicles were recalled to reduce the risk of pedal entrapment caused by out of place or faulty floor mats.
The latest accelerator recall extends to the following vehicles in Canada:
Bill Gates, the former Microsoft CEO, has finally joined the long list of celebrities and business magnets who have succumbed to the popularity of Twitter, the world's most popular micro-blogging service.
The co-founder of Microsoft, the world's largest software company, managed to generate a following of 70,000 fans in the first six hours of creating his official Twitter account and has since then acquired over 170,000 fans.
Bill Gates, who stepped down from the position of Microsoft's Chief Executive Officer on June 27th, 2008, is now focusing full-time on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has become the world's largest non-profit organization.
In his first ever tweet, Mr. Gates wrote "Hello World. Hard at work on my foundation letter -- publishing on 1/25."
Gates also messaged Ryan Seacrest, the popular American TV and radio show host, thanking him for the work done by him to raise money for Haiti earthquake victims.
The man is also following 40 accounts on Twitter, including that of The Economist, The New York Times, U.S. President Barack Obama, Queen Rania or Jordan and interestingly enough, the account of High School Musical star, Ashley Tisdale.
Regina's Nancy Armstrong returned from Hollywood with the names and addresses of celebrities who are interested in her Booby Trapper.
Marketing her breastfeeding cover-up at a celebrity "gifting" suite in Beverly Hills a couple of days before the Golden Globe awards, Armstrong was thrilled by the response her creation got from some of the 200 celebrities and media personalities attending the event.
Marisa Coughlan, who has appeared on the television series Boston Legal and on three episodes of the hit TV show Bones, had no complaints about her pleasure with the Booby Trapper.
Filmmaker Roman Polanski won more damages on Tuesday from French publications that printed photographs of him at his Swiss home, where he is confined pending extradition proceedings in a child sex case.
A Paris court convicted the magazines VSD and Voici and the weekly newspaper Journal de Dimanche of breaching Polanski's privacy by publishing zoom-lens pictures of him and his children without permission.
It ordered them to pay a total of 16,000 Euros ($23,000 US) in fines, costs and compensation to him and his wife, French actress Emmanuelle Seigner.
The publications had printed pictures of Polanski and his family at his chalet near Gstaad, Switzerland. The filmmaker is under house arrest there while Swiss authorities consider a demand by the United States to deport him to face charges of having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in California in 1977.
Last week, a Paris court also ordered French daily Aujourd'hui en France, with its Paris edition Le Parisien, to pay 4,500 Euros to Polanski for printing pictures of him in Gstaad.
It convicted that paper of breaching his privacy and the right to the use of his image, rights strictly protected by French law.
A long-awaited plan for the Broadway district in Saskatoon includes a proposed nine-story building height restriction, ideas to bring to life blighted back alleys and the creation of several large public plazas will be presented tonight.
The Broadway area has resisted such overarching plans for several years, often over bitter neighbourhood disputes.
The report on these issues, created by Toronto-based urban planners Planning Partnership, was the end result of two years of discussion among the community association, city hall, residents and the Broadway Business Improvement District, and marks the first time this type of distinct planning has been undertaken in Saskatoon.
The extensive document, titled "Broadway 360," will be presented tonight at 6:30 pm at the Broadway Theatre. The recommendations include the transformation of the Five Corners area at Broadway Avenue and 12th Street into a public plaza and the revival of alleys with store fronts, galleries and cafes.
That could be interesting... but I care more about the traffic signals.
In 2009, the Government of Canada introduced Budget 2009. And with Budget 2009, one of the most popular measures was the Home Renovation Tax Credit.
Well, in order to take advantage of that tax credit, you must perform the repairs/renovations/upgrades to your home by the end of this month.
Well, it may have had a bunch of people performing renovations in their home; it also boosted businesses locally in Saskatoon.
For instance, the Saskatoon branch of Superior Cabinets took advantage of the program, merging it with its own promotions. According to Scott Hodson of Superior Cabinets, the company offered a rejuvenation program that provided discounts on top of the tax credit.
Another business, Windecor Windows, has seen some business-related benefits from the tax credit, said employee Andrew Quibell.
See, the tax credit does have benefits for more than just customers.
The Golden Globes, the awards show known for the fact that it often points toward the Oscars, has called Avatar the Academy Award favourite.
At the 67th Globe ceremony Sunday night, the special-effects blockbuster, which is on track to set the all-time box office record, was named best drama.
How sad...
In addition, Avatar director James Cameron, a Canadian who was born in Kapuskasing, Ontario, was named best director for the motion-capture sci-fi adventure whose technical innovations may have changed moviemaking.
Michael Jackson's doctor on today pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the sudden death of the pop star last year from a lethal cocktail of drugs. Dr. Conrad Murray, who has offices in Houston and Las Vegas, entered a Los Angeles courthouse to chants of "murderer" from Jackson fans gathered outside. Inside the courtroom, he faced members of the singer's family.
What do you do when you're a business owner that deals with a supposedly-obnoxious customer? Well, you use the law to ban them for life, if you can.
Do you drink a can of soda every day? Maybe it's time to think again. Drinking two or more soft drinks a week may nearly double a person's risk of developing pancreatic cancer, researchers are warning. That is scary, and is definitely going to change my soda-drinking habits.
Toyota will establish a global quality task force and implement other procedures to ensure customer safety and satisfaction, its president said at a press conference. Akio Toyoda expressed deep regret for the inconvenience and concern to customers, and announced that he will personally take the lead toward improving quality worldwide.
The cops paid Charlie Sheen a visit today. But the twist is, it's not for something that he did.
Taylor Lexus Toyota in Regina is trying to soften the blow for customers who can't take delivery of their newly-purchased Toyota vehicles due to a sales embargo on vehicles recalled to fix defective gas pedals.
Winter Olympics staff and volunteers working frantically to get one of the primary venues ready for competition got more bad news yesterday: the weather forecast.
On January 28, in a security filing, video rental chain Blockbuster Inc. said that the company's director Carl Icahn has announced his intention to resign from the company's board. Is it true? Man, that guy seemed like a real troublemaker. Remember his public conflicts with John Antioco?
Think that muffin labelled as low-fat won't get to your ass? Well, think again! Muffins billed as low-fat at your favourite coffee shop may not be so free of fat. And that low-fat sandwich or pizza slice on the menu of your fast-food joint may not be as "lean" as advertised.
Supporters and critics of Canada's healthcare system have found themselves in a new debate sparked by the decision of a provincial premier to seek heart surgery down in the United States. The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador said yesterday that Premier Danny Williams would be absent for a few weeks after his doctors recommended that he travel to the United States for a heart procedure.
Man, Toyota's misfortunes won't seem to disappear these days. First, there is a lawsuit for those who were apparently "inconvenienced." Then, another lawsuit by a bunch of people who want their resale value back (these people are pathetic). And now, there are complaints about brake problems with the company's 2010 Prius hybrid.
Start-up cell phone company DAVE Wireless Inc. Yesterday introduced the consumer brand name it will use once its network is complete and can begin offering services.
Canada gets a D in innovation, according to a report card issued today, ranking the country 14th among 17 industrialized nations for its ability to turn knowledge into money-making products and services. In a report from the Conference Board of Canada, this country ranked ahead only of Australia, Italy and Norway for innovation. So, it appears that the Conference Board likes to put down Canada, just like Dwain Lingenfelter putting down Saskatchewan.
Saskatoon Transit riders adjusted to a new payment system today as the City of Saskatoon unveiled debit-style smart cards and electronic readers on its transit fleet. Some riders reported frustration and slight delays as a handful of people on each bus were caught unaware of the electronic fare system and how it works, despite an advertising blitz on buses and local media.
What do you do when you break into someone's home? Well, you'd leave the scene and not come back. Well, that's what logical people do. But in this situation, that wasn't the case.
Officials at the University of Calgary are floating tuition hikes of as much as 47% in professional programs for next year, which are figures that student representatives call "terrifying."
A 12-year-old boy and 13-year old girl from Indiana are facing felony charges for "sexting" each other with nude pictures. They face child exploitation and child pornography charges after the teacher confiscated the girl's cellular phone when it rang in class last week.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's new focus on helping some of the world's poorest people won praise at the World Economic Forum from two of the annual conference's superstars, Bill Clinton and Bill Gates.
Fewer distracted drivers and more traffic enforcement are at the root of the first year-over-year reduction in reported collisions Saskatoon has seen in January in four years, police say.
The Government of Canada will announce today that Canada is donating five million doses of its excess H1N1 vaccine to the World Health Organization, according to Canwest News Service.
A Saskatoon company that won an award for job creation in late 2009 issued 16 layoff notices this week.
Secured creditors for Canwest Ltd. Partnership (LP) voted overwhelmingly to approve the unit's restructuring plan yesterday, setting the stage for its sale or potential spinoff.
The re-launching of the Chalk River nuclear reactor in eastern Ontario has been delayed by at least a month, according to a release from Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.
With his legislative agenda stalled and unemployment stuck in double-digits, U.S. President Barack Obama plans to use his first formal State of the Union address Wednesday night to outline his effort to rebuild the nation's economy and put more Americans to work.
Canada's privacy watchdog on Wednesday announced another investigation into Facebook after fielding a fresh complaint about a new tool launched on the popular social-networking website.
It looks like an oversized iPhone, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs is betting the world will be excited about the much-hyped and rumour-laden iPad tablet computer. Wow... a tablet computer.
Colleen Walsh beat up a guy last spring and was charged as she beat someone up aboard a transatlantic flight was found guilty last week of failing to comply with instructions of a crew member and assaulting another passenger, Stan Harrington.
Canada for Haiti, the one-hour special produced collaboratively by CBC, CTV and Global Television that aired on Friday, raised more than $13.5 million for relief efforts in Haiti.
That movie Avatar has surpassed Titanic to become the highest-grossing movie worldwide, distributor 20th Century Fox said on Tuesday.
A nation that has traditionally thought of itself as liberal and forgiving is adopting a hard line on crime and punishment, including the death penalty. 
The world's first film shot by chimpanzees is about to hit the airwaves.
It seems winter comes after spring in Saskatchewan. Well, I'm pretty sure a lot of people in Saskatchewan can agree with that statement right now.
China hit back hard against U.S. criticism of China's controls over the Internet, saying on Friday that the United States' push against online censorship could harm relations between the two big powers.
Saskatoon Transit's fleet of buses saw seven buses requiring minor repairs and two requiring major refurbishment after SGI examined 26 buses as part of a safety audit that wrapped up yesterday.
Not too long ago, there was a recall by Toyota regarding acceleration problems related to a floor mat issue.
Bill Gates, the former Microsoft CEO, has finally joined the long list of celebrities and business magnets who have succumbed to the popularity of Twitter, the world's most popular micro-blogging service.
Regina's Nancy Armstrong returned from Hollywood with the names and addresses of celebrities who are interested in her Booby Trapper.
Filmmaker Roman Polanski won more damages on Tuesday from French publications that printed photographs of him at his Swiss home, where he is confined pending extradition proceedings in a child sex case.
